[E-rundbrief] Info 18 - WTO - Cancun - US-chief of delegation Zoellick to Meet EU's Lamy

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 18

Bad Ischl, 7.9.2003

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at

=============================================================

USTR Zoellick to Meet EU's Lamy, Others
In Run-Up to WTO Ministerial Sept. 10-14

U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick plans to meet privately
with trade ministers from a wide range of countries, including
European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, in Cancun, Mexico, on Sept.
8-9, in a last-minute bid to narrow differences ahead of the five-day
ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization being held in
Cancun beginning Sept. 10, officials said Sept. 5.

A senior U.S. trade official, briefing reporters, said Zoellick's
schedule was still "fluid," but he would hold one-on-one sessions
with ministers from dozens of African, Caribbean, Latin American, and
Asian nations, as well as the so-called Quad group of highly
industrialized WTO members--the United States, Japan, Canada, and the
European Union.

Lamy said Sept. 4 that he will be meeting Zoellick in Cancun on Sept. 8.

The U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said that Zoellick
had also met Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, who will
chair the WTO ministerial Sept. 10-14, in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 4.

"We are at the midpoint in the negotiations," Zoellick said in a
written statement Sept. 5, "and so our goal in Cancun is to provide
the appropriate frameworks for us to negotiate real and ambitious
trade reform ... But we can't do this alone--everyone must step up to
the plate."

The WTO ministerial conference--the fifth such meeting since the
organization was launched in January 1995, replacing the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)--will be attended by trade and
agriculture ministers from the WTO's 146 members, including, in
addition to Zoellick and Lamy, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann M.
Veneman and European Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler.

Officials said that Cambodia and Nepal will be welcomed into the
organization as the newest members at a ceremony in Cancun on Sept.11.

Other WTO ministerials were held in December 1996 (Singapore), May
1998 (Geneva), November-December 1999 (Seattle), and November 2001
(Doha, Qatar).

15 U.S. Government Agencies Will Be at Talks

USTR said that some 15 or so U.S. government agencies will be
represented in Cancun including Agriculture; Commerce; the
Environmental Protection Agency; the Federal Trade Commission; Health
and Human Services; Homeland Security; Justice; Labor; the National
Security Council; State; U.S. Trade and Development Agency; Treasury,
and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Alan P. Larson, undersecretary of state for economic, business, and
agricultural affairs, and Grant Aldonas, undersecretary of commerce
for international trade, will be among the U.S. officials attending
the meeting.

USTR said that more than 40 senators and members of Congress from
various committees including House Ways and Means; Senate Finance;
House and Senate Agriculture; House and Senate Judiciary, and staff
will also be in Cancun.

Some 75 "cleared" business, labor, environmental, and consumer trade
advisers, along with 237 U.S.-based non-governmental organizations
have been accredited as well (for a total of more than 700 private
sector representatives), USTR said.

U.S. to Focus on Market Access

The senior U.S. trade official who briefed reporters Sept. 5,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States will
focus in Cancun on improving market access for agriculture and
nonagricultural products.

"Our focus remains that of opening markets," the official said.

Other officials have said that agriculture is key to the success of
the Cancun ministerial, as well as to the overall WTO negotiations,
due to conclude by the end of 2004.

But the U.S. trade official said Sept. 5 that progress at the meeting
in Cancun could also be frustrated by difficulties in reaching
agreement on whether to begin negotiations on the four so-called
Singapore issues: investment, competition policy, transparency in
government procurement, and trade facilitation.

"This is going to be a very difficult issue," the official said.

He said that while the EU and Japan want to move ahead with talks on
all four issues, many developing countries, including India and most
African nations, are "very strongly opposed" to new talks, notably
regarding investment and competition policy.

Lamy said Sept. 4 that the EU wants the WTO to deal with the four
issues as a package and will not agree to "unbundle" investment and
competition policy, for example, from the rest as suggested by some
members of Congress and USTrade, which groups some 350 pro-trade
businesses and organizations.

U.S. Opposes Extending Deadline for Talks

The U.S. trade official who briefed reporters Sept. 5, meanwhile,
said that the United States opposes extending the January 2005
deadline for completing the WTO talks, insisting that the United
States "remains aggressive on the timetable" for wrapping up the
negotiations.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorium, speaking in Rio de Janeiro,
Sept. 5 was reported to have said that Brazil would support an
extension of the negotiations if its demands were not met.

Brazil has been urging the United States, the EU, and other
industrialized WTO members as part of the so-called Group of 20
developing countries to sharply reduce or even eliminate subsidies to
the agriculture sector beyond what they so far have committed to do.


"I don't want it to happen," Amorium said. "But if we are faced with
the dilemma of either extending a little bit or lowering ambitions, I
would prefer to extend the timetable. It's important to avoid having
to make concessions without getting anything in return on
agriculture."

But South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin reportedly
said after meeting Amorium in Rio de Janeiro Sept. 5 that he would be
reluctant to agree to an extension of the negotiations.

"It's not in our interest to delay these deadlines," Erwin said. "It
means that the adverse positions of developing countries are
perpetuated."

South Africa is also a member of the Group of 20, which also includes
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay,
Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Venezuela.

More than half the group are also members of the Cairns Group of
agricultural exporting nations.

The G-20 group announced Sept. 2 that it will be holding a meeting in
Cancun on Sept. 9 to coordinate their positions ahead of the WTO
ministerial meeting that begins the following day.

By Gary G. Yerkey

===========================================
Matthias Reichl
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Wolfgangerstr.26
A-4820 Bad Ischl
Tel. +43-6132-24590
e-mail: mareichl at ping.at
http://www.begegnungszentrum.at