At the 29 May meeting of the WTO's Aid for Trade (A4T) Task Force, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy presented the findings of his bilateral consultations with various international organisations, financial institutions and WTO Members.

Lamy noted that international organizations and WTO Members are willing to participate in an A4T scheme, so long as new A4T funds are delivered through existing mechanisms. He also insisted that the A4T package should run parallel to the Doha Round talks and go into effect when the negotiations are completed.

Noting that the Task Force should consider the opinions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Lamy pointed to the September meeting in Singapore where the Bretton Woods institutions will likely discuss their contribution to A4T.
Task Force Chair Ambassador Mia Horn af Rantzien (Sweden) presented a preliminary outline of issues that will be addressed in the draft report that the Task Force will present to WTO Members in July. Members agreed that there seems to be a growing consensus on a general framework for the mechanism, as well as the view that the process should be demand-driven, and that conditionalities should be either inexistent or extremely limited.

Mauritius (on behalf of the Group of African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries), Brazil, Colombia and the EU each submitted a paper on their views on A4T at the meeting.

Canadian Ambassador Don Stephenson reported on the final recommendations of the Integrated Framework Task Force (IFTF), which he chairs. Specifically, it has suggested to Members that the Integrated Framework should remain a least-developed country (LDC)-specific mechanism, but that its governance, implementation, and beneficiary country 'ownership' need to be improved.

A Task Force meeting open to all WTO Members is scheduled for 12 June; another gathering, limited to its 13 Members, is set to take place four days later. Sources report that a first draft of recommendations should be ready by 3 July.

ICTSD reporting.

GAMBLING DISPUTE: ANTIGUA SEEKS COMPLIANCE FROM US

On 25 May, the minister of finance and the economy for Antigua and Barbuda, Errol Cort, announced that Antigua and the US had agreed on procedures for reviewing whether the US had taken measures to comply with the recommendations of the DSB in the gambling dispute (see BRIDGES Weekly, 13 April 2005 and 5 April 2006).

According to Cort, the agreed procedures have been communicated to the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). Under these procedures, the parties will request the creation of a panel to decide on whether the US is in compliance with the ruling. If the panel finds that the US is not in compliance, Antigua will then request the DSB for permission to retaliate against the US.

Antigua has expressed concern about two new bills introduced in the US Congress earlier this year, purporting to rectify the inconsistencies WTO judges found to be associated with the cross-border supply into the US of gambling and betting services (see BRIDGES Weekly, 1 March 2006). According to Antiguan WTO Ambassador John Ashe, the Caribbean island nation remains open to discuss its concerns about the new bills with the US outside the WTO dispute settlement court.

ICTSD reporting; "Antigua-Barbuda presses for online gaming dispute resolution," CARIBBEAN NET NEWS, May 26, 2006.