WTO, still stumbling

[Eubulides <paraconsistent@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

WTO admits hope of reviving Cancun talks is fading

Larry Elliott
Wednesday December 10, 2003
The Guardian

The stalled global trade talks received a fresh setback yesterday when the
man burdened with rebuilding trust after the breakdown in Cancun admitted
that next week's deadline for resuming the meetings would be missed.

Failure to resolve the divisions between developed and developing
countries in the three months since the abortive Mexican meeting forced
officials at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva last night to prepare
for "plan B".

With hopes fading that governments can muster the political will to
relaunch the Doha round of trade liberalisation talks, the WTO revealed a
fallback position whereby officials will try to make progress in specific
areas such as agriculture in the new year.

"I wouldn't call it a failure. I would call it unfinished business," said
Carlos Perez del Castillo, who chairs the ruling general council of the
WTO.

Negotiations collapsed in September when the WTO's 146 members were unable
to bridge differences on subjects including agriculture, trading rules and
cotton subsidies. They set themselves a deadline of next Monday to get the
talks going again and all negotiations have been suspended as diplomats
tried to come up with a framework of aims and objectives.

Mr Perez del Castillo, Uruguay's ambassador to the WTO, said he had seen
some progress and now had a clearer sense of what would be required to
reach agreement. The groups looking at individ ual issues would restart
their work at the beginning of next year.

But he added: "We have witnessed little real negotiation, or movement
toward accommodation among positions, or searching for common ground. Many
delegations have noted that there does not seem to be a sense of urgency,
and I would agree with them."

Privately, officials in Geneva blame foot-dragging by the European Union
for failure to regain the initiative lost in Cancun, arguing that
developing countries will not allow the talks to progress until Brussels
drops its demand for investment rules, competition policy and government
procurement to be part of the negotiations.

British sources said last night that Brussels was "completely in the wrong
place" over the stalled talks and that the trade secretary, Patricia
Hewitt, was seeking to build support within the EU for a negotiating
position that would ditch the contentious issues.

Despite the latest setback, the WTO has not given up on meeting the
January 1 2005 deadline for completing the talks begun in Doha.