GENEVA--The chairman of the World Trade Organization's ruling General Council has sent members a checklist of issues to serve as the basis for preparatory talks on the WTO ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar, next fall.
Hong Kong's chief representative to the WTO and General Council Chairman Stuart Harbinson said he was issuing the checklist "in order to stimulate thinking and provide some initial focus" for a May 3 informal meeting of delegations which will discuss preparations for the Nov. 9-13 Doha ministerial.
The "immediate purpose of the checklist is simply to provide a broad framework which is flexible enough to accommodate future, more focused discussions, not to reflect all the aspirations of Members," Harbinson said in an April 20 note to delegations.
Harbinson added that while the non-exhaustive checklist "concentrates on possible substantive elements of the Doha agenda," it "should not be seen as an outline of a possible Ministerial Declaration for Doha."
Nevertheless, the "chairman intends, with the cooperation of the (WTO) Director-General and the Secretariat, to use the checklist as a basis for organizing intensive consultations in the weeks ahead," he added.
The ministerial conference, which must be held at least once every two years, is the highest decision-making forum for the WTO. The General Council acts on behalf of the ministerial conference on all WTO affairs and issues decisions when the conference is not in session.
Trade officials said Harbinson appears intent on avoiding the mistake made in the run-up to the WTO's disastrous 1999 ministerial conference in Seattle, where delegations dumped a 32-page draft ministerial declaration on the laps of ministers because of their inability to bridge differences during preparatory talks in Geneva on the proposed agenda for a new trade round. The unwieldy text proved too difficult for ministers to sift through in Seattle, contributing greatly to the failure of the meeting.
Ministers will meet in Doha once again with the goal of launching a new trade round. Harbinson, whose chairmanship gives him a key role in the drafting of an initial Doha ministerial declaration, has already signaled that he will decide at some point which proposed agenda items stand a chance for gaining consensus in Doha and include them in the draft text. In the past, including in the run-up to Seattle, all agenda items proposed by members were included in the draft, and ministers were left to battle things out themselves, trade officials said.
Harbinson's Checklist
Harbinson's checklist of issues contains six main headings: ministers' views/statements on current issues; implementation; ongoing negotiations/reviews; other elements of the work program; organization and management of the work program; and technical cooperation and capacity building.
Under the "ministers' views" heading, Harbinson has proposed possible discussion items such as the state of the world economy and the role of the WTO, the need to combat protectionism, development dimensions of WTO work, global economic coherence, the relationship between regionalism and multilateralism, accessions of applicant countries, and sustainable development.
The "ongoing negotiations/reviews" heading suggests discussions of the WTO talks on agriculture and the services trade, which were launched early last year, as well as mandated reviews of existing agreements. Agreements that have been reviewed or are in the process of review include Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), and the Dispute Settlement Understanding, the WTO's rule book for resolving trade disputes. A review on implementation of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing is scheduled to commence by the end of 2001.
Harbinson did not include any subheadings under "implementation," but the issue, which focuses on developing country concerns regarding their difficulties in implementing existing WTO agreements such as TRIMs, TRIPs, and others, is already the subject of a formal WTO work program launched in last June. Dear to the hearts of a number of developing country members, the issue is seen as possibly the biggest stumbling block to the launch of a new round. Likewise, no subheadings were listed under the "organization and management" and "technical cooperation/capacity building."
The "other elements of the work program" heading will cover the most challenging issues facing Harbinson and WTO members in the run-up to Doha, namely which issues should be included on the negotiating agenda for a future trade round. The heading includes a "Singapore subjects" subheading which refers to the issues of trade and investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement, and trade facilitation, all of which are being examined by WTO working groups established at the organization's first ministerial conference in Singapore in 1996 and all which are being championed by some members as negotiating items for the new trade round.
Also included by Harbinson is a subheading for "other possible subjects." Discussions here are expected to touch upon the other issues that various members are proposing as negotiating items for the new round. Among these are tariffs on industrial goods, trade defense measures (including antidumping rules), the environment, and social development issues (including labor standards).
Harbinson said in his note that he does not plan to have detailed, item-by-item discussions of the checklist items at the May 3 informal meeting. Delegations therefore "are encouraged to come to the May 3 meeting prepared to react in general terms to the checklist and to exchange views on how they envisage the evolution of the preparatory process in the coming weeks," he said.
By Daniel Pruzin
Copyright c 2001 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.:
