Interim WTO Agreement in Doubt, Says Bernal

INTERIM WTO AGREEMENT IN DOUBT, SAYS BERNAL CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – “It is doubtful that agreement on “First Approximations” can be reached by the end of July,” said Director General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, reflecting on what could be achieved at next week’s scheduled World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council meeting. That meeting had been slated as a deadline for a set of interim agreements to be arrived at for Doha Round talks, in advance of a key WTO Ministerial in December. Coming out of the “Mini-Ministerial” held in Dalian, China last week, prospects for an interim agreement for month’s end were diminished. There were no tangible outcomes on specific negotiating issues emerging from the Dalian encounter, save for a pledge to work toward an agreement on agricultural tariff reduction negotiations, as regards structuring the market access pillar in Agriculture talks, and to increase momentum in technical areas, more especially in relation to Agriculture and non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) – that have been and continue to be the thorny issues in negotiations. In the days since Dalian, efforts have been made to advance the process prior to this month’s General Council, however there is a recognition of the difficulties in arriving at agreement – especially over tariff-cutting formulas for agricultural and industrial goods. Against this backdrop, Geneva-based trade diplomats are considering a “Mini-Ministerial” meeting in Geneva for October, originally mooted by the group of select Trade Ministers who met in Dalian. The expectation is, this proposed “Mini-Ministerial” would provide impetus for negotiations, before another General Council meeting that same month. However, Ambassador Bernal has suggested that the convening of such a “Mini-Ministerial” in October might be too late to give the necessary push that would be needed in advance of December’s Ministerial. Dr. Bernal said “ideally a September date should be considered for such a meeting; however this would not preclude holding another “Mini-Ministerial” for October, should the need arise.” Geneva-based negotiations will wind down next month, and pick up again when Director General Designate Pascal Lamy (a former EU Trade Commissioner) becomes the fifth Director General of the WTO, September 1, on the expiration of the term of Supachai Panitchpakdi. In an address yesterday to a meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), which provided the opportunity for Chairs of the various negotiating groups to present written status reports of their activities since the last TNC, Dr. Supachai recalled his warnings over lagging negotiations in technical areas in previous months. He remarked “I have said before that my finger was hovering over the alarm button. Now I have pressed it.” By Dr. Supachai's own admission, Doha Round talks are in trouble. Because he did not want to close off the TNC on such a note, it was suspended. The TNC will be reconvened next week, either on Monday, if there is a breakthrough over the weekend in consultations on-going now primarily in the area of Agriculture, or Tuesday. Either way, the expectation is the TNC would take place before Wednesday’s start date for the General Council.