JAPAN CALLS FOR DISCUSSIONS ON INVESTMENT

On 17 January, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Takeo Hiranuma, called for the inclusion of new topics, such as investment rules, at an upcoming WTO informal ministerial meeting. The meeting will be held from 14-15 February in Tokyo, and will focus primarily on advancing the agricultural negotiations, for which there is a 31 March deadline around the corner. Minister Hiranuma said Japan considers investment rules and antidumping rules to be "very significant." The WTO is set to decide on whether and when negotiations on investment will take place at the fifth Ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September.

"Japan wants WTO ministers to take up 'new' issues," KYODO NEWS, 17 January 2003.

ENVIRONMENT NEGOTIATING GROUP TO BEGIN WTO-MEA TALKS IN EARNEST

When it meets on 12-13 February, the special (negotiating) session of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) is expected to focus on its mandate of clarifying the relationship between WTO rules and specific trade obligations in MEAs. The meeting, which will be the group's first in 2003, will follow up from a 12 November 2002 session wherein Members reached a compromise agreement on how to structure talks around the WTO-MEA linkage (see BRIDGES Weekly, 14 November 2002). As such, according to trade sources, discussions will centre around specific trade obligations contained in certain MEAs, particularly those outlined in Secretariat document WT/CTE/W/160/Rev.1 (available online at http://docsonline.wto.org). The special session will be followed on 14 February by a regular meeting of the CTE, where Members are expected to focus on the WTO's market access and agricultural negotiations in the context of Doha Declaration para. 51 (helping achieve the objective of having sustainable development appropriately reflected in the negotiations). The CTE will also consider initial input into its report to the fifth Ministerial (in Cancun, Mexico, 9-13 September), where the CTE Chair is mandated to make recommendations on future action, including the desirability of negotiations on various other aspects of the CTE mandate (Doha Declaration para. 32).

ICTSD reporting.

LITTLE PROGRESS AT S&D INFORMAL TALKS

The first in a series of five Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) informal meetings took place on 17 January. Delegates discussed how to break the present deadlock on talks relating to special and differential' (S&D) of developing countries. The meeting saw little progress, as developing countries -- notably Kenya and Zambia -- opposed any 'watering down' of the mandate originally agreed in Doha. The two countries did not support confining discussions to Chair Ambassador Ransford Smith's list of 22 agreement-specific proposals proposed in December (and including an additional three and five proposals from the Africa Group and India respectively). Kenya reminded the Chair that there were other proposals on the table that needed to be made 'precise, effective and operational.' Another African delegate expressed frustration over the significant 'watering down' from the original list of 85-plus proposals from the original mandate at Doha. The delegate voiced concerns that rolling deadlines for S&D would result in 'inadequately staffed' developing country missions losing out on the ability to follow other equally important negotiating issues, and warned of a slowdown of talks in other negotiating bodies. Supporting Kenya's and India's desire not to push talks beyond February, he preferred instead fresh guidance from Ministers at Cancun in the event of any failure to reach an agreement by then.

The next informal meeting is scheduled to take place on 24 January. Three more informal meetings and a final formal meeting on 3 February are to follow. The CTD Special Session is to report to the General Council at its session on 10 and 11 February 2003, as it was unable to do so at the General Council meeting on 20 December 2002 (see BRIDGES Weekly, 15 June 2003).

ICTSD reporting.