APEC MEETING WILL PROMOTE DOHA NEGOTIATIONS
Trade ministers from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries will focus on advancing the ongoing Doha Round negotiations at the WTO, during their upcoming 2-3 June meeting in Jeju, South Korea.
The ministers expressed "serious concern" about the slow progress of the services talks in a 5 May joint statement. The statement sent to WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, also called on WTO members to meet the May 2005 deadline for submitting offers of market access in order to advance the services negotiations.
Following the joint statement, the chair of the meeting, Korean Trade Minster Hyun-Chong Kim, urged his colleagues from Pacific Rim countries to use the meeting to "discuss ways to contribute to the [Doha Round] negotiations." Kim expressed hope that the APEC ministers would add momentum to progress made at the recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) summit and the WTO mini-ministerial meeting in Paris (see BRIDGES Weekly, 11 May 2005). He expressed optimism that ministers would deliver a message that "APEC members are determined to achieve agreement on the negotiation modalities at the [WTO] Ministerial Conference" that will be held in Hong Kong, China, in December.
"APEC ministers call for progress on services," APEC ANNOUCEMENT, 11 May 2005; "APEC ministers responsible for trade adopts joint communiqué on DDA Service," APEC PRESS RELEASE, 21 May 2005; "Korea’s trade minister calls for APEC resolve to advance WTO round," APEC PRESS RELEASE, 25 May 2005; "Meeting to Enhance Negotiations on Doha Development Agenda," MALAYSIAN NATIONAL NEWS AGENCY, 30 May 2005.
WHO MEETING DISCUSSES RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADE AND PUBLIC HEALTH
On 27 May, fourteen countries presented a draft resolution on international trade and health (EB115/Conf. Paper 1) to the 116th Executive Board (EB) meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO). The EB sets the agenda for the organisation’s supreme decision-making body, the annual World Health Assembly. The meeting did not formally pass the resolution, which called for greater policy coherence among the fields of public health and international trade agreements, although several participants agreed on the importance of the matter. Members concluded that more time was needed to agree on a final text. They proposed to do so at the next EB in January 2006.
At members’ request, the EB meeting included a section on trade and health. The draft resolution — sponsored by Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Iraq, Jamaica, Kenya, Nepal, Sudan, Thailand, Tonga and Vietnam — came in reaction to a related report (EB116/4) prepared by the WHO Secretariat. The resolution calls on ministers of health, trade and finance to collaborate more constructively. Specifically, it ‘urges’ governments to promote dialogues on the inter-linkages between trade and health and take respective actions to mitigate the potential ‘risks’ involved.
The issue received general support. However, several EB members suggested weakening the resolution’s tone, such as changing "risk" to "implications" and "urging" to "inviting." The US expressed concern that the WHO was reaching too far into trade policy, which it argued fell under the responsibility of other international organisations, such as the WTO.
If this resolution is passed at the January 2006 EB meeting, it will be directly presented to the World Health Assembly in May that year.
For the report by the WHO Secretariat on International trade and health, please refer to: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB116/B116_4-en.pdf.
ICTSD reporting;" WHO Board Delays Decision on Trade-Related Proposal" IP WATCH 27 May 2005