Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 32 • 1st October 2003
GC Chair Looking For Guidance On Way Forward
The Chair of the WTO General Council (GC), Uruguayan ambassador Carlos Perez del Castillo, indicated on 30 September that he would bring together the heads of delegations in Geneva to plan for the path ahead in the all-but-stalled Doha round negotiations. For the time being, WTO negotiating sessions on agriculture and non- agricultural market access scheduled for October have been cancelled. The special session of the Committee on Agriculture was to have met from 6-9 October. Members are, however, waiting for guidance from the next GC, scheduled for 20-22 October. This meeting will be preceded by at least one heads of delegation (HOD) meeting called by Perez del Castillo — likely to be held early next week. Chair Perez del Castillo is currently in the process of meeting with delegations to get a sense of how Members hope to proceed following the collapse of trade negotiations in Cancun on 14 September (see BRIDGES Daily Updates, 10- 15 September 2003). However, The regular meetings on services are proceeding as scheduled, and a special services negotiating session will be held starting 6 October as planned.
On the schedule for the rest of the year, a high-level GC meeting will be held by 15 December. Chair Perez del Castillo said that "my feeling is that everybody wants to put this back on the rails. I think that there is a growing feeling that a failure of multilateralism will not help anybody." In his talks so far, he said, he had come across some "encouraging signs," and said he would continue his work. However, he warned, "if by the end of November things do not work out, then we’ll have to reassess the situation".
ICTSD reporting; "WTO Chair to Ask Heads of Delegations To Cobble Together Post-Cancun Plan," WTO REPORTER, 1 October 2003; "WTO mediator sees last gasp bid to save talks," REUTERS, 30 September 2003.