TRADE FACILITATION: CONSENSUS REACHED ON DRAFT REPORT FOR TNC

During the 18 November session of the WTO Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation, Members were able to adopt their draft report to the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC, TN/TF/W/72), overcoming differences that had caused their previous meeting to break down (see BRIDGES Weekly, 16 November 2005). They also reached consensus on the seven-line text for the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration that endorses the recommendations contained in the TNC report.

Language on starting text-based negotiations muddled

In the end, it was apparently small changes in sections of the draft report's text that resulted in consensus.

A key difference during the group's previous session was on the issue of whether the report should mention a potential start date for start text-based negotiations. In response to concerns expressed by delegations including Kenya and Cuba, the report's reference to "the need to move into focused drafting mode early enough in 2006" was changed to "...early enough after the Sixth Ministerial Conference." As one delegate stated, there was no reason to include any indication of a date for trade facilitation when no similar dates had been proposed for central negotiating topics such as agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA).

One developing country negotiator said that while not all delegations were completely happy with the report, all Members could 'live with the text' and that it reflected their various interests. To address procedural concerns, the report's title was changed from 'Draft Hong Kong Report' to 'Report to the Trade Negotiations Committee.'

Members also managed to agree on language for recommendations regarding special and differential treatment (S&D). One developing country trade delegate suggested that the modified report's S&D language was more expansive, since it reaffirmed "the linkages among the elements of Annex D" of the 2004 July Package (WT/L/579), as opposed to only two specific paragraphs of Annex D as in the earlier version of the report.

Language that technical assistance be made "expeditiously operational" was changed to a stipulation that it be made operational in a "timely manner," reportedly in response to concerns voiced by the US.

Door remains open to future submissions

One trade diplomat stressed that developing countries had successfully retained the flexibility to submit new proposals to the group, since the report specified that negotiations should continue on the basis of Members' proposals including "any new proposals to be presented," and did not set out an end-date for new submissions.

The diplomat admitted that even though no WTO Member so far had explicitly rejected the inclusion of any item in the present list of proposed issues, Members would eventually need to stop discussing new ideas and elements and get into 'text-based negotiating mode.'

What if technical assistance isn't delivered?

An African delegate told Bridges that Members were yet to act upon the July Package technical assistance mandate to identify the 'needs and priorities' of developing countries and address concerns on the cost implications of implementing trade facilitation measures. The delegate reiterated that many developing countries want clearer assurance that the necessary technical assistance will be forthcoming before they agree to any commitments. Another trade expert pointed out that Members were even mandated to provide countries with technical assistance "during the negotiations."

The trade facilitation mandate is notable for explicitly linking developing country Members' eventual obligations to the successful delivery of technical assistance.

In a personal comment, a developing country negotiator said that there were two options for what developing countries could do if trade facilitation obligations were formalised but technical assistance remained inadequate. They could, for example, choose not to commit to problematic obligations from the outset, i.e., commit only partially to provisions in an agreement. Alternately, they could commit to all provisions but not implement the obligations that were problematic. In the delegate's view both options were possible, but future discussions with other Members would be required to clarify the issue.

Trade sources report that while the text was 'in principle' adopted by consensus at the meeting, it still needs to be approved at the TNC meeting on 30 November as well as the 1-2 December meeting of the General Council.

ICTSD reporting.