Associated Press Worldstream | By NAOMI KOPPEL | January 23, 2004
World governments have less than a month to decide whether they can conclude a major trade liberalization treaty at a meeting in Hong Kong at the end of year, politicians were told Friday.
John Tsang, Hong Kong's secretary for commerce, industry and technology, told trade ministers his government needed to know by mid-February whether to prepare for the meeting of the 146 members of the World Trade Organization, trade officials said.
He added that the only time that Hong Kong's convention center is available in 2004 is the week between Christmas and New Year.
But ministers were divided on whether it would be possible in any case to complete their work on schedule at the end of the year.
"I guess if the political will is there, if people do as they say they are going to do ... we should have more than enough time to finish," said WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi.
But Swiss President Joseph Deiss, who chaired Friday's meeting of ministers and officials from 19 countries on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, said he thought it was impossible.
"It isn't a question of being negative, it's a question of being realistic," Deiss told a news conference afterward. "The negotiations haven't started yet. I think there's too much to be done in order to get through."
WTO members launched their current trade talks in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, with a deadline of 2004.
The trade round - the last one was completed in 1994 - aims to increase international trade and boost the global economy by mutual reduction of import duties and other barriers to free trade.
But ministers have fallen increasingly far behind schedule. In September, their ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, collapsed when countries clashed over subjects including farm subsidies and setting rules on investment.
Friday's meeting was the first gathering of ministers since Cancun, but neither U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick nor European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy attended.
"This meeting wasn't negotiating, but I would say there was a very genuine understanding of our will, disappointment at Cancun and our desire, based on that, to move negotiations forward," said Linnet Deily, the U.S. ambassador to the WTO in Geneva, who headed the U.S. delegation.
Youssef Boutros-Ghali, the minister of foreign trade of Egypt, said governments needed flexibility and a restoration of trust before they could hope to make progress.
He stressed that governments had to deal with the issue of subsidies given to cotton farmers in the United States, the EU and China, which are a major concern for his country and other producers in Africa.
Many developing countries and some major agriculture exporters also insist that the most important issue generally is farm subsidies.
"The world has so much to gain if we can come to an agreement and so much to lose if we don't" Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson told reporters.
"Agricultural subsidies are costing the world over a billion dollars a day. We have an obligation to redirect those funds to the global economy and those who need it most."
The WTO's ministerial meeting - held at least every two years - attracts thousands of government officials, journalists and special interest groups. The meeting that concludes a round likely would be an even bigger affair.
Many countries lack the infrastructure to host such an event, and others are unwilling to volunteer because WTO meetings are always accompanied by protests from groups that believe the body favors big business over poor people and the environment.
Hong Kong volunteered during the Cancun meeting to host the next gathering, and that was approved at a WTO meeting in October. Tsang said his government would be prepared to give that up if the decision could not be made at the WTO's General Council meeting in February.Associated Press Worldstream:
