WTO MEMBERS SCALE BACK EXPECTATIONS FOR HONG KONG MINISTERIAL
Trade ministers from the US, the EU and Brazil told the press in Geneva on 9 November that it was highly unlikely that WTO Members would be able to agree on a detailed framework for the Doha Round in time for the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December. Members had hoped that negotiations in Hong Kong would lead to agreement on full ‘modalities’, namely specific numerical values and formulae for reducing tariffs on farm products and industrial goods. However, the failure of the EU and US in particular to agree to cuts on tariffs on agricultural products, along with differing opinions on how much sectors such as services and non-agricultural market access should be liberalised, has cast a pessimistic shadow over Geneva negotiators in the run-up to the Hong Kong meeting. Representatives from influential Member governments reported that they were unable to bridge the wide differences that separate them, particularly on agriculture. Negotiations, which have for the most part been held between the new "group of five" (US, EU, Australia, India and Brazil), have also struggled with development questions such as the extent of reductions in subsidies to agriculture, how to enhance special and differential treatment for developing countries and whether there should be differentiated treatment between small, medium and large developing countries. Delegations are scaling back their expectations for what they will be able to achieve in Hong Kong following three days of disappointing meetings in London and Geneva, but insist that their expectations for the round as a whole have not changed. Trade diplomats are now looking to the December summit for ‘partial modalities’ and agreement on a date for finalising full modalities, possibly at a second ministerial-level gathering in early 2006 that some have dubbed ‘Hong Kong Two’.
Although environmental issues have not explicitly been contentious in these high-level negotiations, issues such as agricultural, services and NAMA liberalisation, along with anti-dumping, have impacts on environment and sustainable development more broadly (see cotton, shrimp stories, this issue, on agriculture and anti-dumping respectively; for services, see Bridges Trade BioRes, 16 September 2005; for NAMA, see Bridges Trade BioRes, 28 October 2005). While the environmental group Friends of the Earth described the standstill as "good for people and the planet" and urged developing countries to not make concessions to trading partners, others expressed fears that a failure at Hong Kong would slow down the round and delay the gains that developing countries are could get from agriculture liberalisation.
For more detailed information on the state of WTO negotiations, see BRIDGES Weekly
ICTSD Reporting; "Trade Talks at a Standstill: Good for People And Planet," FOEI PRESS RELEASE, 11 November 2005.
CHINA HIGHLIGHTS TRADE IMPLICATIONS OF EU ECODESIGN REQUIREMENTS
At a bilateral US-China meeting on 1 November, China expressed concern that the European Directive 2005/32/EC — a framework to create EU rules for the eco-design requirements of electronic devices — could create market uncertainty and prove to be a technical barrier to trade. At the meeting of the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade the next day, China noted its concerns. Given that the EU Directive is designed to regulate the environmental standards of a given energy-using product, China argues it could create market uncertainty by, for example, requiring different products to meet rigorous standards that could also vary between EU countries and be altered at short notice. The EU, on the other hand, maintains that creating eco-design standards for energy-using products throughout the EU is intended to ensure that the current variation amongst domestic regulations amongst EU members is replaced by a system that does not interfere with intra-EU trade. The initiative aims to integrate aspects of environmental performance into the early design process in order to reduce energy consumption throughout the product lifecycle.
The "framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-using products" was adopted by European Parliament on 6 July 2005. Actual implementation of the directive is expected in 2007.
The Directive 2005/32/EC is available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/eco_design/directive_2005_32.pdf.
ICTSD Reporting.