Chairs Emerging For WTO Negotiating Groups

Five negotiating groups are likely to be established during the Ministerial Conference. Each group will be chaired by a minister and could be divided into sub-groups if necessary. Singapore will probably chair the negotiating group on agriculture, Lesotho the one market access, and Hong Kong that on . new issues. .  Brazil might refuse to preside over the working group on implementation (no alternatives have been advanced yet). The working group on systemic issues . transparency and relations with civil society . is likely to be chaired by Chile. The first four groups will not start meeting until Wednesday, and the fifth until Thursday.

Although the negotiation procedure remains to be determined, each group will probably consist of some 15 to 20 countries, which are likely change from one group to another, as participation seems to be determined according to a country. s economic weight as well as the special interest a country might have for a given theme. If the working group manages to reach a consensus, the text will be introduced in the . green room. , which will consist of 15 to 20 governments representing different regions and different levels of development. Finally, the green room consensus will be presented to full WTO membership, which ultimately needs to approve it.

While the process of drafting the Ministerial Declaration seems blocked only hours before the Conference starts, many delegates are holding informal consultations. Among those, the European Union is preparing to propose a new version of the ministerial declaration with the support of such countries as Switzerland, Japan and Korea, as well as Central and Eastern European WTO Members.

Cairns Takes A Hard Line In Run-up To Ag Talks.

The Cairns group of agriculture-exporting nations expressed confidence that they are as strong as they. ve ever been in their commitment to pursue . real and meaningful progress. on dismantling barriers to trade in agriculture. Emerging from a meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, one official from the 18-member group stated that . the U.S. is virtually totally onside with the Cairns group, and wants the elimination of export subsidies..

The meeting, chaired by Australia. s Trade Minister Mark Mark Vaile, reinforced the Cairns group. s position that agriculture be treated the same as any other sector.  With respect to biotechnology, the Cairns countries have yet to form a common position, and the issue is still . on the table. .  However, Cairns representatives have been invited to meet with Glickman again on 30 November to discuss how to proceed with this potentially divisive question.  Some members of the agriculture group, such as Canada, favour establishing a working group on biotechnology as it relates to WTO rules within the WTO; others are lukewarm on the idea, preferring to pursue such questions through a biosafety protocol.

In related news, farmers. organisations representing small and family farmers expressed their anger at the gradual erosion of small and family farms.  Via Campesina and the National Family Farm Coalition were joined by U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone and others to bring attention to their plight.  Stressing their shared difficulties with small farmers from around the world, they argued that the well-being of small farmers was being sacrificed through trade agreements that were structured in the interests of large corporate farms.  They called for an audit of trade agreements in agriculture and vowed to fight any national legislation that would make it more difficult for small farmers to earn a sustainable wage because of trade obligations.

WTO and UNEP Establish Deeper Co-operative Linkages; Environmental NGOs Develop Strategy

Executive-Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Klaus Töpfer and WTO Director-General Mike Moore met on 29 November to discuss the working relationship between UNEP and the WTO. . UNEP is committed to this co-operation,. noted Töpfer, . especially with respect to capacity-building for developing countries.. Both Directors acknowledged that multilateral environ-mental agreements (MEAs) have equal status with WTO rules, though Moore remarked that this remains an untested area that UNEP could assist in clarifying. Töpfer argued that MEAs should be linked with the WTO. 

According to a WTO press release, co-operation between the two secretariats will include the provision and exchange of relevant non-confidential information, including access to trade-related environmental databases, and reciprocal representation at meetings of a non-confidential nature.  UNEP will also be playing a role in mainstreaming environmental considerations within the WTO, particularly for developing countries.  . We need to ensure developing countries that environmental laws and the precautionary principle are not green protectionism; this can be achieved with more emphasis on confidence-building measures..

This echoed a key conclusion reached by a grouping of prominent environmental organisations that met on 29 November to forge a strategy for the Ministerial discussions.  The groups included the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the World Conservation Union, the Royal Institute for International Affairs, and the Global Environment and Trade Study.  . A central reason for not putting environment on the agenda is reticence on the part of developing countries,. said Daniel Esty (Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy); our efforts over the next few days is to demonstrate that all countries have nothing to lose and everything to gain by including environment on the agenda.  Some attendees to the meeting were less than optimistic about the prospects for a declaration by the end of the Seattle talks, let alone having environment inserted into a potential text.  Esty points to posturing between the U.S. and the EU as one issue that could needlessly prevent the inclusion of environment in a declaration.

NGOs push for . Clean, Green, and Fair Trade.

A fiery session devoted to . The Human Face of Trade: Health and the Environment. took place on Monday, 29 November at the 1st United Methodist Church in downtown Seattle.  A series of panels composed of NGO and government representatives urged the packed hall to push the WTO to change its practices to . Clean, Green, and Fair Trade. . A recurrent theme was that of dissatisfaction with the WTO. s decision-making processes, which are regarded by many as non-transparent and undemocratic.  . Our agenda is very clear,. said U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters.  . We want fair trade, and [WTO Director-General] Mike Moore needs to be reminded that& democratic institutions don. t make decisions in secret..   At noon, attendees and protestors numbering in the thousands took to the streets and marched to the WTO Convention Center, where a day-long NGO Symposium was being staged.  Chants of . Hell No, WTO. greeted delegates as they entered the building to attend sessions in preparation for the coming week of negotiations.

International Investment Meeting Hosted By The Foreign Policy Focus

The Foreign Policy Focus hosted a meeting at the Pike Place Market Convention Center to discuss with other NGO members the multilateral and bilateral agreements on investment and their impact on the environment.  The first panelist, Martin Wagner from the Earth Legal Defense Fund, began by addressing the different problems that the implementation of the investment provisions in the NAFTA Agreement has caused to different states such as California. He pointed out the impact that environmental regulations have on investment and how . foreign investment gets a level of protection that is greater than the domestic standards. .

Lyuba Zarsky from the Nautilus Institute explained how 80 percent of the capital flow in the world take place between rich countries and the other 20 percent occur among developing countries where only 12 nations receive the biggest shares, including China.  She also highlighted the fear that exists in countries of losing competitiveness which usually moves political decisions to attract investment by lowering standards.

No Promises on Implementation; LDC Market Access Pact Progresses

Despite the often vibrant rhetoric in favour of a . development round. or better integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading system, government answers to specific questions relating to the implementation of existing WTO Agreements remain evasive. So far, neither developed Cairns Group members, nor the United States or the European Union have indicated a willingness to address any of the long list of demands put forward by developing countries with regard to exemptions from obligations negotiated during the Uruguay Round or extension of deadlines for compliance.

On the contrary, the United States repeated in a Monday press briefing that acceleration of its textile liberalisation commitments and anti-dumping were off the table, and that the TRIPs Agreement already had sufficient flexibility to accommodate questions related to access to essential medicines or patenting life forms. According to the EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, the European Union also opposes renegotiating . basic rules. of the multilateral trading system, but recognises that their implementation has been problematic in . certain areas. that could be addressed in the context of a comprehensive new round of negotiations. The EU has been careful to avoid the discussing textiles, but says that it remains open to the possibility of addressing anti-dumping rules.

An announcement regarding market access for least-developed countries is expected within a couple of days, but this announcement will in all likelihood leave a loophole for the exclusion of the most . sensitive. products, whether agricultural or textiles, out of the commitment of duty-free access for . essentially all products. . The package to be announced will probably amount to a binding at the WTO of existing preferential tariffs under developed WTO Members. Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) schemes or other comparable programmes. Such a binding would make it more difficult to withdraw preferences or to tie them to conditionalities.

Fisheries Subsidies

Fisheries subsidies are emerging as a potential key element of the Seattle Ministerial Conference. s environmental agenda. Earlier in the preparatory process, Iceland, the United States, the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia had proposed the elimination of fisheries subsidies as a . win-win-win. item for negotiation, as such action would prove beneficial to trade liberalisation, the environment and development. On Monday, Iceland and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) held a joint press conference to attract attention to the initiative. Ministers and other high-level government officials from the United States, New Zealand, the Philippines, Australia, Argentina and Norway also expressed their support.

In all, some 25 WTO Members backed the initiative. Among reasons cited by the speakers were that subsidies . estimated at US$20 billion a year . contribute to excess capacity of the global fishing fleet and thus to overfishing. More than 70 percent of the world. s fish stocks are either depleted or recovering from severe depletion. Some commercially viable species are close to extinction. Fish is a major component of much the world. s diet, as well as an important factor in local economies and employment. The initiative. s backers proposed a two-pronged approach: a first phase consisting of the identification of harmful subsidies (i.e., those that contribute to overfishing) and the second of setting a timetable and quotas for their elimination. . If the Seattle Round achieves nothing else than an agreement to eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies, it will already have done a great deal for sustainable development,. said WWF Director-General Claude Martin.

African Group Outlines Its Positions

At the suggestion of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the African Group met on 28 November to harmonise its positions for the Third WTO Ministerial Conference. The reference documents for the meeting were the conclusions of the African Trade Ministers meeting in Algiers in September 1999 and those from a meeting held in Geneva last week.

While most delegations agreed that the Seattle Round should not include . new issues. , South Africa . supported by a few countries . advised the African Group to extend the negotiations beyond the built-in agenda.

Two countries asked Africa to . approach these negotiations in a positive manner. and to accept the concept of a . development round. . The . development round. is a concept proposed by the UK to overcome Southern countries. resistance to widening the scope of the negotiations to include new issues (see Africa Trade Network position paper on this issue).

Tanzania suggested that the African Group adopt a pragmatic attitude and a . reasonable, negotiable and acceptable. position, prioritising the issues that Africa must negotiate in its own interest.

Egypt regretted the lack of an alternative plan that would allow Africa to overcome the constraints imposed on it by the solutions currently available. It insisted on the need to define a common African negotiation position while stating the different points of view. A co-ordination and reporting mechanism should also be established. Egypt, as Zimbabwe, identified agriculture, assessment of existing agreements and market access as the three most important issues for the continent, and new issues as well as labour standards as unacceptable subjects for negotiation.

Zimbabwe expressed doubt on the effectiveness of further trade liberalisation, as well as its potentially negative impacts on African economies.

In addition, Nigeria together with several other countries proposed that a new formal request be addressed to the WTO for a continuation of the Lomé Convention waiver, which expires in February 2000.

IN BRIEF:

Speaking at a conference organised by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Seattle, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy both confirmed their position vis-ā-vis trade and labour standards: the United States advocates the establishment of a Working Group within the WTO to study the interaction between trade, employment and social safety nets, while the EU is proposing to set up a Joint ILO/WTO Standing Working Forum on Trade, Globalisation and Labour. Neither proposal, as they currently stand, would involve discussions on the potential use of trade sanctions in case of violations of core labour standards. Both proposals . vigorously opposed by developing countries, albeit for the opposite reasons . were rejected by the ICFTU, which campaigns for the inclusion of labour standards as a . social clause. within the WTO Agreements.

Despite a star-studded panel of firm believers in trade liberalisation, it soon became apparent that the audience of the Seattle Symposium on International Trade Issues in the First Decades of the Next Century was far from convinced. Martin Khor from the Third World Network introduced the central message of the NGO Seattle Declaration, signed by more than 3000 organisations and released Monday: review the content and implementation of existing Agreements, repair the imbalances and shortcomings revealed by the review, and reform the WTO's decision-making structures. Add no new issues to the built-in agenda of agriculture and services before the review, repair and reform process is complete, i.e. have a 'turn-around' instead of a 'new round'. It would be dishonest to speak of a 'development round' if further liberalisation were undertaken before these implementation concerns were addressed.  Like developing country governments, the signatories of the Declaration identified the WTO Agreements on agriculture, trade-related investment measures, trade-related intellectual property rights, subsidies and anti-dumping among those in need of repair. For a more details on the Symposium, please see the report prepared by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, available at http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/