[E-rundbrief] Info 69 - WTO-Verhandlungen - Kritik an EU-Zustimmung

Mi Dez 3 16:48:10 CET 2003

E-Rundbrief - Info 69 - WTO-Verhandlungen - EU-Kommission - Grünes Licht 
für Lamy - Kritik von Grünen und NGOs

Bad Ischl, 3.12.2003

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at

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THE GREENS/EFA IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
PRESS RELEASE  Brussels, 2 December 2003

No EP consent on re-launch of WTO negotiations
Greens/EFA decry lack of proper consultation on WTO talks

The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament strongly criticised the 
European Commission for a lack of proper democratic consultation over its 
new strategy paper on restarting failed WTO trade talks. EU Trade Ministers 
will discuss the issue today at an informal meeting in Brussels.

Luxembourg MEP Claude Turmes said:

"Neither the European Parliament nor national Parliaments have had the 
opportunity to react to this paper, which was only released last week. It 
looks like the document will be formally approved at the General Affairs 
Council on 8/9 December without our contributions because the draft council 
conclusions, endorsing the Commission's "business as usual" Communication, 
have already been circulated to Member States. The Commission is claiming 
that the European Parliament general supports its stance but in reality 
there has been no opportunity for us to give any formal response. Trade 
Commissioner Lamy cannot claim that we have endorsed or consented to it. 
Basically he is proposing to re-launch negotiations on the general basis of 
his existing mandate which dates from the middle of 1999. We believe that 
this mandate requires substantial revision. The democratic deficit is 
getting wider, national parliaments have been totally sidelined and there 
will in effect be no informed debate on a new strategic direction."

Caroline Lucas MEP (UK), Green/EFA Group spokesperson on international 
trade in the Parliament's Industry Committee, said:

"After the collapse in Cancun, we all expected the Commission to have a 
serious strategic re-think. What we have instead is tactical repositioning 
whereby some  or maybe even all  of the contentious Singapore issues will 
be taken off the immediate multilateral negotiating agenda but not removed 
from the WTO's table. This ignores the overwhelming opposition expressed by 
developing countries in Cancun and risks again provoking deadlock when the 
WTO General Council meets later this month. Commissioner Lamy has a 
well-developed process of presenting himself before the parliament's 
various committees, as he will do today, but this is no substitute for a 
serious in-depth scrutiny and policy critique by parliamentarians."

***************************************************
Press Service of the Greens/EFA Group
in the European Parliament
Helmut Weixler
phone: 0032-2-284.4683
fax: 0032-2-284.4944
mobile phone: 0032-475-67 13 40
e-mail: hweixler at europarl.eu.int
website: www.greens-efa.org

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If you have broadband internet, you can listen/view the press
conference by Lamy and Urso given after their presentation in the
European Parliament via
http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/schedule_old.cfm?jour=3&semaine=49
Just search for Lamy on that page and click on the time in the left
column

Lamy and Urso both said that the Commission proposal is supported
consensually by the Council and the European Parliament. So it looks
like the EU  is heading for another defeat in the WTO on the 15th of
December. The EC continues trying to start negotiations on all four
Singapore Issues in the WTO, either within or outside the single
undertaking. This objective is completely at odds with the position
of many developing countries that no negotiations on any of the
Singapore Issues should be started in the WTO.

At the end of the press conference in the European Parliament Dave
Timms asked Lamy the following questions: "Commissioner Lamy has said
he has the mandate to proceed on the Singapore Issues in a new way.
Can he clarify: does this apply to all of the Singapore Issues and
that none are being struck off the EU ambitions? And just secondly,
briefly: How does the Commissioner expect developing countries to
respond when he returns in December seeking negotiations on issues
which I think many of them might have thought they saw the last of
when he offered to get rid of them in Cancun."

Lamy: "The position we are suggesting on Singapore Issues is more
sophisticated than the one we suggested in Cancun. Cancun was meant
to be a negotiation, and with some sort of dynamic of the negotiation
and you have to take quick simple decisions and by that time we
suggested this compromise or more exactly: we agreed to that
compromise which was tabled by the chair, that we could keep two and
decide on the start of negotiations on these two and remove two --
investment and competition would have been removed, trade
facilitation and transparency in government procurement would have
started right after Cancun. Now this didn't work and we went back to
sort of square one and we now are coming back with a more sort of
sophisticated position which is offering a menu: either removing one
or two or three or four of these issues from the single undertaking,
which has the benefit of alleviating the pressure linking these
topics with the others in the negotiations, so we agreed that they
could be delinked, or, and, depending on the menu which our
interlocutors would want to choose, switching from multilateral
agreement to plurilateral agreements, as we did it for instance for
ITA and for the Government Procurement Agreement, which is a
plurilateral agreement. So what we are tabling is flexibilities in
various directions so that we can address the sensitivities of our
trade negotiating partners and we can also take into account in the
negotiations the position of other WTO members who have been staunch
supporters of Singapore issues, all the four, in the negotiations,
like Japan, like Korea or like Costa Rica for instance."

Erik Wesselius
Corporate Europe Observatory
3.12.2003

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Green light for Lamy mandate

Pascal Lamy has got the go-ahead for a controversial mandate aimed at
reviving world trade talks in a fortnight's time.

The commissioner's new-look trade package, unveiled last week, found
favour with the European Parliament and EU trade ministers on Tuesday
despite angering developing countries and NGOs.

"They were all in support of the document," said Italian trade
minister Adolfo Urso, calling the mandate "appropriate given the
experiences of Cancun".

The EU took two months to review its negotiating mandate after the
current round of development talks was left in suspended animation
when ministers failed to agree a deal in Mexico on dismantling the
barriers to trade.

The most significant change to the mandate concerns what Lamy calls a
"more sophisticated position" for rules on investment, competition,
trade facilitation and government procurement - known collectively as
the 'Singapore Issues'.

Lamy took flak in Cancun for his doggedness on the four rules -
judged far too complex by fledgling developing economies - and has
therefore offered a new "plurilateral" 'pick and choose' approach to
the rules, no longer insisting they are negotiated as a package.

"The changed configuration without any fundamental upheavals got the
support of the parliament and trade ministers," he said.

"We are now offering a menu, either removing one or two or three or
four [of the Singapore Issues]."

"This has the benefit of alleviating the pressure of linking these
topics with others."

The EU's stance has been greeted with consternation by developing
countries who fear they will be left with a 'Catch 22' choice.

Developing countries can either take part reluctantly in negotiations
on the topics which they already cold-shouldered in Cancun, or they
can leave themselves in the vulnerable position of being forced into
an agreement they have not negotiated at a later date.

Lamy sees this "switch from multilateralism to plurilateralism" as a
way to keep countries such as Japan and South Korea happy while not
letting developing countries black ball a deal.

The trade liberalisation talks  known as the Doha Development Agenda
 are set to be given the kiss of life on December 15 when trade
officials meet at the WTO headquarters in Geneva.

Even with the EU's revised position, it is unlikely developing
countries will be enticed back into negotiations when they see no
changes to the more fundamental questions of protectionism in
agriculture and industrial goods.

EUpolitix,
3.12.2003

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Matthias Reichl
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