Agence France Presse | September 4, 2001
PARIS - A new round of WTO trade talks is almost certain to be lauched at the next ministerial meeting in November, the future director of the World Trade Organization, Supachai Panitchpakdi, said in a published interview Tuesday.
"I would say that there is more than an 80-percent chance" a new round of market-opening negotiations will be launched at the November 9-13 meeting in Doha, Quatar, Panitchpakdi told the newspaper La Tribune.
Panitchpakdi said there remained "about 20 percent" doubt about launching a new round of talks. "We will be focused on that from now until late September." The former Thai commerce minister, who will succeed Mike Moore at the helm of the WTO next year, said the proposal of China's entry into the 142-member WTO "could be officially announced" at the WTO ministerial meeting.
"After that, the members must vote on the proposal," he added.
"I think that, in early next year, China could become a member. That is going to confirm China's status as a member of the international economic community."
Environmental issues have eclipsed agricultural concerns as key impediments to holding new talks, he said.
"Agriculture is already under advanced discussion. The proposals are public, Europe knows where it wants to go, people know where they stand," he said.
Meanwhile, about 20 ministers of the South African Development Committee (SADC) met Tuesday in Port-Louis, Mauritius, to hammer out a common position on the need for a new round of talks ahead of the upcoming WTO meeting.
The two-day meeting also was to serve as preparation for a pan-African meeting in several weeks in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to define a continental strategy.
Some African countries "fear that a new cycle of negotiations will be to the detriment of devoloping countries," Mauritian Trade Minister Jayen Cuttaree told AFP.
The elimination of tariff barriers and agricultural subsidies directly affects Mauritius, a small economy lacking natural resources and having a weak industrial base, he noted.
"The price we get for our sugar depends on what European farmers get from the subsidies that are being strongly attacked by the United States and the Cairns Group, which includes Australia, South Africa and New Zealand," he said.
The 17-member Cairns Group accounts for one-third of the world's agricultural exports.
Disagreements between rich and poor countries, particularly on the issue of agriculture, were among the chief reasons behind the failure to launch a new round of talks at the Seattle WTO meeting in 1999.Agence France Presse:
