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| Volume 6 | Number 12 | Date: 30 June 2006 |
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In Brief EU TRADE CHIEF PROPOSES NEW WTO ROUND ON ENERGY EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on 23 June called for a new round of WTO negotiations that would address the energy sector and seek to treat oil and gas like other traded goods. In an interview, he described how he envisioned how a new set of negotiations, could follow the completion of the Doha Round and apply WTO rules and procedures to trade in energy products. This could potentially require oil and gas producers to liberalise distribution networks, thus opening up access to Russia's gas pipelines, currently under the control of Moscow. Energy-importing industrialised countries would like to eliminate barriers to trade in energy as increasing global demand for oil and gas drives up prices. To address the reluctance of energy producers unlikely to support liberalisation, Mandelson suggested offering them additional investment and more security for their energy exports. In February 2006, a group of energy-importing nations and a few major energy exporters, including Canada, Saudi Arabia, the US, Australia, and the EU tabled a "collective request" in the WTO Services negotiations to a group of developing countries including Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The proposal asks them to open up their markets to freer trade in energy services, including core activities of oil and gas production, processing and distribution. Energy-related products have been largely exempted from WTO rules as a result of the GATT exceptions for national security and the conservation of exhaustible natural resources. Instead, some 51 countries and the EU have to date been using the Energy Charter Treaty, a 1998 pact that provides for cooperation on energy-related policy making, investment and free trade, as a basis for international rules on energy. The EU's proposed new WTO rules on energy would involve a broader scope and extent than the ECT text. Information on the Energy Charter Treaty is available at http://www.encharter.org ICTSD Reporting;
"EU Trade Chief Poses WTO Rules In Energy Sector," WALL
STREET JOURNAL, 23 June 2006. ACP COUNTRIES ASK EU TO PROTECT PREFERENCES FOR FISH AT WTO A resolution adopted by Ministers and delegates at the African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP) and EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly on 22 June in Vienna, Austria calls on the European Commission to consider carving out canned tuna products from WTO tariff reduction obligations to protect ACP exports to EU markets. The reference to tuna reflects the fear by many ACP country policy-makers that reductions on WTO negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) will reduce EU tariffs on imports of canned tuna from non-ACP countries. A substantial share of ACP export earnings come from their exports of tuna products to the EU, and especially value-added products like canned tuna, where they are competitive partly because of low, preferential tariff treatment they receive at EU borders under the Cotonou Agreement and the Generalised System of Preferences. The resolution suggests that reduction in tariffs on imports from non-ACP third countries could reduce ACP exports to the EU with the possibility that their "entire tuna canning industry may be devastated with serious socioeconomic consequences". To avoid this eventuality, they suggest taking canned tuna out of coverage of the tariff reduction formula to ensure an "effective level of preference". The resolution also sets out key principles and guidelines for the EU-ACP relationship on fisheries, including that ACP countries should be allowed to opt-out of fisheries partnership agreements with the EU, under which the latter fishes in ACP waters, if they consider that the agreements are harmful to their social, political, environmental or economic interests; that all EU vessels fishing in ACP waters should be equipped with Vessel Monitoring Systems to monitor position and catches; and notes that ACP-EU cooperation in fisheries has to work towards enhancing ACP capacity to "develop their fishery resources sustainably and to enhance local added value". On social issues, the resolution calls for the preservation of coastal communities' traditional fishing practices and demands that "all agreements should contain measures to protect small-scale indigenous fisheries", including through financial mechanisms. The resolution is available online at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/acp/60_11/pdf/resolutions/app3847en.pdf ICTSD Reporting.
EU NOVEL FOODS REGULATION EXAMINED AT WTO A group of developing countries suggested at a meeting of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures on 28-29 June that the EU Novel Foods Regulation was too restrictive on their exports of traditional and biodiversity-related products and urged the trading block to take into account their concerns in its revision of the text. Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador and Colombia, supported by the Philippines and India, pointed out that other developed countries do not restrict biodiversity-based traditional food exports as much as the EU does. In particular, Peru made a strongly-worded statement based upon its previous submission (G/SPS/GEN/681; see Bridges Trade BioRes, 3 April 2006) which suggested that the novel foods regulation is incompliant with the SPS Agreement, while Paraguay said it was seeking Codex Alimentarius Commission standards for one of its most popular traditional sweetening products. Ecuador pointed to an impact assessment it was in the process of finalizing aon the revisions the EU has proposed to the regulation. The assessment suggests that the changes could affect Ecuardian exports of primary products and fruit juices. The regulation, among other things, subjects all imports of "traditional" biodiversity-based products that were not on the EU market before 15 May 1997 to a more stringent and rigorous safety assessment before release into the EU. The EU reacted by noting that the regulation harmonises divergent rules amongst EU member countries, thereby making trade more transparent and easy for developing countries, but also seeks to address real and serious health risks posed by some traditional products. In its submissions to the meeting, the EU pointed to the ongoing revisions to the regulation and calls on Members to share their concerns as inputs into that process, under which they are going to table new legislation in 2007 (G/SPS/GEN/699 and 700). The Andean countries have been participating in informal discussions and negotiations on the issue in Brussels and would like traditional and biodiversity-related products to be excluded from the regulation. In addition, India defended itself against inquiries made by the US regarding its recently WTO-notified and re-published biotech labeling rules, noting that the rules have been in place since 1989 but have faced implementation difficulties (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 2 June 2006). The Indian delegate said the government would consider comments made by the US, Canada and Chile at a discussion on biotech labelling to be held in late 2006 amongst Indian Ministers. The Novel Foods Regulation is available online at http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/novelfood/index_en.htm Information on the public consultation on the revision of the regulation is available online at http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/novelfood/initiatives_en.htm ICTSD Reporting. UNICPOLOS ENCOURAGES COOPERATION, ECOSYSTEM APPROACH The seventh
meeting of the United Nations Open-Ended Informal Consultative Process
on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (UNICPOLOS) took place from 12-16
June in New York and, while more controversial issues were avoided,
incremental progress was made in reaching consensus on effective
ecosystem-based oceans management practices. Disagreement continued
along familiar country and regional lines on regional fisheries
management organisations (RFMO) and high seas governance, precluding
any major breakthroughs in terms of recommending substantial new
actions to implement ecosystem approaches to oceans management.
Advances were nonetheless achieved, as presentations highlighted
useful management approaches; ways to strengthen of RFMOs; and the
encouragement of strengthening and improving coordination and cooperation
within, and, in accordance with international law between states,
inter-governmental organisations, regional scientific and advisory
organisations and management bodies. Delegates also suggested that
ecosystem based management (EBM) approaches were possible within
developed and developing countries as the approaches are relatively
inexpensive, as demonstrated by implementation on countries such
as Mexico, Palau and Namibia. Many delegates also underlined that
initial costs of EBM are significantly outweighed by the long-term
penalties of not doing so. In the end it was agreed that ecosystem
management should focus on managing human practices, such as land-based
and sea-based pollution, over-fishing, dumping and physical destruction
and degradation of habitats. UNICPOLOS also encouraged states to
address impacts on marine ecosystems within and beyond areas of
national jurisdiction, as according to Acting Director General of
IUCN Ibrahim Thiaw we otherwise "stand to lose and to irrevocably
damage unique wildlife and critical ecosystems many of which moderate
our very existence on the planet." UNICPOLOS-6
Documents can be found at http://www.un.org/Depts/los/consultative_process/consultative_process.htm
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