DEMANDEURS LOOK FOR GREATER MOMENTUM ON SERVICES

WTO services negotiators are scheduled to have a two-week 'cluster' of meetings from 16 April. Members seeking new formally-bound market opportunities for their service providers in the Doha Round negotiations are hoping that this cluster can build on the high-level political discussions in the series of 'enchilada' talks convened by services Chair Ambassador Fernando de Mateo over the last several weeks.

These 'demandeur' countries are intent on moving away from the 'informal' nature of recent clusters, and want to go into formal negotiating mode. Sources say that the upcoming cluster will probably be an effort to lend substance and momentum to the services talks, which are seen as 'losing steam' in spite of the efforts of de Mateo and a number of key demandeurs.

Demandeurs are asking their trading partners to bring in capital-based services experts and regulators for the bilateral and plurilateral negotiations planned for the two-week cluster. Countries such as Canada have been at the forefront of trying to maintain the prominence of the plurilateral approach to the market access negotiations, in which a group of countries collectively request liberalisation commitments from another group of Members. Meanwhile, the US has indicated in various small-group consultations with trading partners that it intends to focus on bilateral negotiations during the upcoming cluster.

Other WTO Members, however, have been reluctant to change their stance on services in the absence of progress in the more contentious negotiations on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA). Sources indicate that they are keen to see the outcome of the 'green room' discussions on the latter two issues that were set to take place the evening of 4 April. These discussions, to which WTO-Director General Pascal Lamy invites ambassadors representing about two dozen countries and negotiating alliances, come on the heels of a meeting in Paris of senior officials from the EU, the US, Brazil, and India - the so-called G-4. Some diplomats are looking to the meeting for indications of whether the Doha talks are likely to proceed to a successful conclusion or get stalled indefinitely.

ICTSD reporting.