TNC STOCK-TAKING SESSION: NEGOTIATIONS NEARING GRINDING HALT

The WTO Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) convened on 4-5 February for its first meeting in 2003 to take stock of progress in negotiations under the Doha mandate and to consider outstanding implementation issues. In his opening address, TNC Chair/WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpak noted uneven progress across negotiating bodies, and emphasised the need to move away from restating well-known positions and shift into an intensive phase negotiating in order to achieve progress. To address the current lack of movement, he suggested gathering high-level officials from capitals in the TNC in April or June. Members generally responded positively to this initiative. During a formal segment of the meeting, the Chairs of several negotiating bodies -- dealing with agriculture, services, the dispute settlement body (DSB), trade and development, market access, trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs), rules, and trade and environment -- provided their reports. These were followed by informal discussions, convened by TNC Chair Supachai to allow for a frank exchange of views.

Negotiating Chairs’ reports

Stuart Harbinson (Hong Kong), Chair of the Committee on Agriculture (CoA) special session, expressed concern with regard to the group’s prospects of meeting the 31 March deadline for agreeing on negotiating modalities (see BRIDGES Weekly, 29 January 2003, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03-01-29/story1.htm). He noted a lack of willingness to compromise on the part of Members. He said he had not received enough guidance to come up with a balanced new document on modalities -- setting out the scope of the negotiations, the methodology to be followed during the actual process, and the end- results expected -- but would draft one as soon as possible. He said he would circulate the new draft to all Members at once, rather than first test the water with some Members (the Chair’s report, TN/AG/7, is available at http://docsonline.wto.org).

Ambassador Péter Balás (Hungary), Chair of the special session of the DSB, reported that negotiations had entered into a fourth phase with the discussion of specific draft text of possible clarifications and improvements to the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). He said he had received a number of new proposals covering issues relating to all stages of the dispute settlement procedure. Commenting on the heavy agenda in his area, he said Members needed to "engage very actively" in order to reach their 31 May deadline to finish negotiations (see related story in this issue of BRIDGES Weekly -- the Chair’s report, TN/DS/5, is available at http://docsonline.wto.org).

Council for Trade in Services (CTS) special session Chair Ambassador Jara (Chile) reported on progress (document TN/S/5). He said links to other negotiating areas shouldn’t block progress in the services area. He said substantial activity was taking place in the current request/offer phase in the services negotiations, during which WTO Members are to respond to requests for additional commitments received by trading partners by the end of March. He noted that there were 30 requests on the table and more to come.

In delivering his progress report (TN/CTD/6), Ambassador Ransford Smith (Jamaica), Chair of the special session of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD), said the group would finalise a report for the General Council next week. He noted that at this point, some Members were adding proposals rather than narrowing them down, and said special and differentiated treatment (S&D) of developing countries was likely to remain on the agenda "for a while" (see related story in this issue of BRIDGES Weekly).

In the ensuing discussion, a number of developing country Members expressed regret and disappointment at the general lack of movement. India warned against an enormous overload in the negotiations, placing an impossible burden on the Ministerial in Cancun in September. Some speakers indicated that they did not want conclusions now, but prefered to keep issues such as S&D on the table for Cancun. Other interventions cautioned that negotiations were nearing a grinding halt, with any progress made being purely technical rather than political. Several interventions supported high-level TNCs to create negotiating momentum.

Supachai to lead discussions on outstanding implementation issues

Moving to the second agenda item of the agenda -- approximately 80 implementation issues that Members agreed to address in the Decision on Implementation-related Issues and Concerns at Doha -- TNC Chair Supachai noted that the issues had been on the agenda for a long time. He said there were five courses of action for each item: to resolve it; to agree that no further action was needed; to refer the issue to a negotiating body; to continue work in a relevant subsidiary body with a clear deadline; or to undertake more work at the level of the TNC. He said he would take leadership with regard to these issues, and seek to come up with a compromise with the help of the eight chairs that had been involved in negotiations on the issues. He will report back at the next TNC meeting on 4-5 March. The TNC will be meeting on a monthly basis.

ICTSD Reporting.