By Rafael D. Frankel BNA
HANOI, Vietnam--Ministers from the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nation wrapped up their two-day consultations here Sept. 12 upbeat on the prospects for launching a new round of the World Trade Organization.
EU trade and finance ministers in particular came into the meetings with their ASEAN counterparts hoping to substantially narrow the gaps on a range of issues threatening to derail the November WTO meetings in Doha, Qatar.
While acknowledging that differences in negotiating platforms remain, ministers said the political will to launch the new round does exist, and could be the overriding factor in facilitating the next phase of the WTO.
"We believe that the likelihood of launching a round is greater now than it has been at any time since Seattle. And certainly, in the last few months there's been a significant shift, a realization by many people around the world that we start to lose a great deal by not keeping the multilateral system going, by not injecting new dynamism into it," Anthony Gooch, the spokesman for the EU Trade Commissioner told BNA Sept. 12.
"The fundamental point is the political will to launch. Once you have that, you have a willingness on the part of people to make efforts, to make compromises, to understand, to accommodate," which was a sentiment previously lacking, Gooch said.
Even with the new momentum toward launching a WTO round this November in Qatar, there are still many gaps in negotiating positions to be bridged between developed and less-developed countries
After meeting behind closed doors for two days, the EU and ASEAN still did not see eye to eye on provisions on the environment and minimum standards on investment and competition, which the EU and the United States want to include in the new round.
Though the ASEAN group consists of countries in different levels of development, the majority of the group of 10 countries spoke as members of the developing world, calling for more time to implement previous commitments, and also for any new round to include stronger provisions on antidumping.
In a joint-statement released Sept. 12, ASEAN and EU ministers said their groups remained committed to launching a new WTO round "at the earliest possible opportunity to promote global growth, prosperity, and sustainable development, and to meet the challenges of globalization." Ministers also expressed their hopes that a new WTO round would serve to revitalize the world's economy now in the midst of a global slowdown.
"To reach a consensus on the launch of a new round, Ministers agreed that the negotiating agenda should be sufficiently broad, and balanced to reflect the interests of all WTO members. The round should encompass further trade liberalization, improvement, strengthening and development of WTO rules," the statement said. "Ministers also emphasized the importance of addressing implementation-related issues and concerns. They also supported efforts to improve transparency within the WTO."
No Consensus on Details
Even with the good will expressed by the ministers, and the statements indicating the desire to move forward, there are still substantial gaps to be bridged for the Doha meetings to become the next round.
"We would like to have new rounds, of course our position is we'll try to make the agenda be in favor with the developing countries as well. It seems to be looking better here after talking [Asian Pacific Economic Commission] and yesterday with the EU people who looked more flexible," Thai Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik told BNA Sept. 12.
"We do not agree with the environmental provisions outright, [nor] some investment policy and competition policy as well. We're not 100 percent sure about that, unless they have specific things to talk about because we don't know exactly what's inside there," Adisai said.
Of prominent importance to Thailand's position, which Adisai said was fairly representative of ASEAN, was the necessity for negotiation on agriculture provisions to continue, leading toward more flexibility on agriculture activities and reduction on subsidies in exports or domestic subsidies. Thailand was also adamant that antidumping regulations be increased in any new round.
"Our position is for it to go forward, but it must be a broad-based agenda. We support a new round, I think we are getting closer to what we are trying to do," he said.
Indeed, on these provisions, the EU sees room for compromise as it is willing to budge some on its antidumping stance if developing countries such as Thailand indicate they are equally prepared to do so particularly on the environment and minimum investment and competition standards.
"For us, antidumping is not a priority, but if it's a deal-ender for someone else, then it's a problem for us, so we need to take that on board," Gooch said. "Equally, on the more developed countries' side, reinforcing the system with new rules that are more responsive to the twenty-first century and to our situation now, we believe, are as much in developing countries' interests as in ours."
"There is very little clarity between how the multilateral environmental rules and multilateral trade rules interact right now. We believe that rather than leaving this up to tribunals, these are eminently political questions, and it's important that we deal with them in a political context and talk about them, rather than leaving them up to panelists who don't have those political concerns," he said.
Indeed, much of the EU's energy at the conference was spent trying to convince ASEAN that further opening of world markets--even while tied to environmental standards--would serve to its advantage, rather than just to American and European interests.
"Open markets and trade liberalization is a win-win game for everybody, including less developed countries who would gain from liberalization in industry, textiles and antidumping measures" European Union Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy told reporters Sept. 11. "Even on the environment, developing countries have something to gain in the clarification of the interaction between business and the environment."
Though the meetings were not open to the press, delegate sources said Malaysia was the leader among ASEAN's less developed countries in voicing concerns over a new round. Even while agreeing to the joint statement urging the new round of WTO negotiations to commence, Malaysia was saying candidly that it doubted such a round could take place under the current conditions.
In doing so, Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Rafidah Aziz assumed the mantel of developing countries throughout the world, and said her country was simply expressing the concerns of hundreds of others: that agreeing to a new round, with new commitments would overextend their abilities while they continue to struggle to implement provisions of the Uruguay round.
"Many countries cannot grasp these new issues: competition and investment with minimum requirements, and the environment, and they're not yet ready to talk about negotiations going forward with them," Aziz told reporters Sep. 12. "But many are ready to discuss the implementation issues and also [further liberalization of] agriculture, services, and even industrial tariffs. If we really want a new agenda to be launched at Doha, why don't we start with these small agenda items, and while we are discussing that, continue talking about the other issues. Then somewhere along the line [we can] bring them on board."
While the terms of the next WTO round could not find an overall consensus, the accession bids of China and the host country Vietnam were welcomed unanimously by the 15 European countries represented here and by ASEAN.
Attacks Not Seen Affecting WTO Round
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, delegates expressed their sympathy for the American people around the world.
Given the fact that one of the attacks was perpetrated on the heart of the world's financial system, the ministers said they were worried about the state of the already fragile world economy, pointing to sharp falls in the Asian markets Sept. 12. However, the delegates did not express any fear over the upcoming meetings in Doha, Qatar.
"We are still not sure as of this moment who did this attack, and I don't think we should draw a link between this and Doha," said Takeo Hiranuma Sept. 12. He also said the world should heed President Bush's words and continue about important business so as not to hand the terrorists a victory. That business, he said, includes "establishing solid and firm multilateral trade in the twenty-first century.":
