News and Analysis • Volume 3 • Number 46 • 24th November 1999

Ministerial No Progress On Draft Declaration; Four Negotiating Areas To Structure Seattle Talks

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Bogged down by continuing disagreements over agriculture and implementation issues, WTO Members have decided to stay with a lengthy draft Ministerial Declaration that was released on 19 October (see http://www.ictsd.org/html/seattleministerial.htm) as a basis for negotiation at Seattle. At Seattle, trade Ministers from the WTO’s 135 Member states will gather for the Third WTO Ministerial Conference from 30 November to 3 December. The outcome of the Conference will be enshrined in the Ministerial Declaration that will outline the direction and scope of future trade talks. Agriculture and services are already scheduled for negotiation as part of the WTO’s built-in agenda.

As has been the case since haggling over the Declaration language began this summer, agriculture and implementation (on implementation, see next story) of existing agreements remain the stumbling-blocks. At a 23 November informal Heads of Delegation meeting, Ambassador Ali Mchumo, Chair of the General Council, warned that without some agreed-to texts on these key areas, “no revision” of the 19 October text “could be considered balanced.”

The prospect of a compromise on the question of agriculture glimpsed last week went up in smoke over the weekend when Brussels rejected the draft of a possible accord on agriculture, “because it failed to reflect its minimum demands”, said a source from the Cairns Group of agriculture-exporting countries (see BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest - Vol. 3, Number 45, 15 November 1999, http://www.ictsd.org/html/weekly/story2.15-11-99.htm ). The EU ”was only trying to find out how much we were willing to yield, in order to design its strategy for Seattle,” the source added. Agreement was deemed unreachable by WTO Director-General Mike Moore, who reached the conclusion that there was ”no more room for debate.”

Over the weekend, new obstacles also emerged in the area of new issues — which include trade and the environment, trade and investment, competition policy, transparency of public procurements, social clauses and electronic commerce.

WTO Members did agree, however, that negotiations in Seattle would take place in four working groups, open to all ministers. The groups will be agriculture, implementation, new issues such as environment and investment (see related section, this issue), and market access. A fifth group will examine administrative issues at the WTO, such as transparency and integration of developing countries, but it will not be a negotiating forum. A “permanent committee”, led by U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and Mike Moore, will meet regularly with ministers to monitor progress.

Moore and Barshefsky remain confident that negotiations at Seattle will succeed in launching a new round of trade liberalisation. “I believe we can still do this at Seattle,” Moore said following a General Council meeting this week. Stated Barshefsky, “This is a negotiation. It’ll break down, and it’ll resume. It’ll break down, and it’ll resume. I’m not in the least bit concerned.” She predicted that the ministers will adopt a declaration that will clearly set the range of issues for negotiations as well as benchmarks for progress, especially a firm deadline for submitting proposals. Some officials have suggested the differences to overcome are so great that the ministers might not be able to agree to launch a new trade round.

“Agriculture Encumbers Talks in Run-Up to Seattle,” IPS, 22 November 1999; “Barshefsky Predicts Successful Outcome for WTO Seattle Meeting,” TRADE COMPASS, 24 November 1999; “Trade ambassadors abandon attempt to agree talks agenda,” FINANCIAL TIMES, 24 November 1999.