Inside US Trade | December 14, 2001
Industrialized countries have begun deliberating on structuring the upcoming negotiations in the World Trade Organization in a way that would not put the director general in sole charge of the guiding the work on behalf of member countries, according to informed sources. Instead, these countries want to create a structure that would also give a prominent role in guiding the negotiations to the chairman of the General Council and a representative of the government that will host the next WTO ministerial, these sources said.
Under this system, the director general of the WTO would be the chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), which has the mandate to hold specific consultations and report to the General Council, they said.
The TNC slot would be filled by current Director General Mike Moore and then incoming director general, Thailand's Panitchpakdi Supachai in Sept. 2002. Moore has rejected any notion that he could continue chairing the TNC in his personal capacity even if he no longer held the job of director general.
As of January 2002, the chairman of the General Council will be from a developed country, and some sources see Canadian ambassador Sergio Marchi as a candidate. Mexico has offered to host the next ministerial, which would make its trade minister the chairman of the fifth ministerial conference. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo has been rumored to possibly play this role in the negotiations instead of the current trade minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez.
The issue of how to organize the new negotiations formally launched in Qatar last month will be discussed among WTO members at next week's General Council session scheduled for Dec. 18 and 20. Other issues to be settled on the structure of the negotiations include the number of negotiating groups that will be set up and who will chair them. One option is to have the TNC groups be chaired by the chairs of the WTO committees, sources said.
On the one hand, this puts Geneva-based officials in charge, setting up the possibility of more informal contacts between chairs and countries' representatives. However, putting officials from outside the WTO committee system in charge can provide for greater continuity, since committee chairs are rotated periodically.
In the lead-up to the General Council session, a dozen developed countries including the United States this week raised the idea of departing from the Uruguay Round model of structuring the negotiations, Geneva sources said.
These countries argue that the new model is appropriate because it worked well in the lead-up to the Doha ministerial to include the chairman of the General Council and the chairman of the ministerial in the preparations. With their early involvement it was possible to set up additional arrangements, such as the Friends of the Chair, who helped pull together a deal in Doha, they argue. These friends reached out to other countries and grouping of countries to help shape a final deal.
Developed countries have also urged that given the deadline of concluding a new round by Jan. 1, 2005, it is important to put in place an effective structure. "If we get everything right in the next few months, we have a shot at getting it done in time," one Geneva source said.
However, a number of developing countries, including India and other members of the Like Minded Group, had criticized the structure used to prepare and organize the ministerial in Doha, saying it resulted in an unbalanced declaration.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier this week implicitly endorsed the Doha process as a model for the new negotiations. In a Dec. 12 speech to the Carnegie Endowment, he said that the process leading to the Doha declaration could be institutionalized to improve WTO governance, because of its effectiveness and transparency.
Specifically, Allgeier praised how General Council Chairman Stuart Harbinson conducted informal consultations, with periodic reports back to the larger membership, to develop a draft declaration. In addition, Allgeier referred to the friends of the chair process, under which selected ministers managed negotiations on different subjects, such as agriculture or the environment with the larger membership.Inside US Trade:
