Countries divided over WTO compromise plan

WTO countries have voiced differences in Geneva over the latest compromise plan for freeing up global trade and breaking a deadlock in trade negotiations. The 21-page blueprint declaration attempts to narrow gaps over cuts in subsidies and tariffs in areas such as farming, industrial products and services. It was drawn up by the chairman of the general council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Carlos Perez del Castillo, for ministers to sign at a conference in Cancun, Mexico in two weeks. That meeting is designed to give a boost to the flagging Doha round of trade talks, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 and aimed at achieving a new global accord by January 1, 2005. “It does not purport to be agreed in any part at this stage... In other words, the whole text is in square brackets,” Perez del Castillo, who is also Uruguay’s ambassador to the trade body, told delegates.

Behind closed doors at the organisation’s lakeside headquarters, WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi urged envoys of the 146 member states to assume their responsibility to make the trade body work. “The choice is clear, either we continue to strengthen the multilateral trading system and the world economy, or we flounder and add to the prevailing uncertainties,” Supachi said. David Spencer, Australia’s ambassador to the WTO, told reporters as he headed into the talks that he would voice concerns about parts of the draft declaration, adding: “Overall the ambition in agriculture is very disappointing.”

Asked for his reaction, Brazilian ambassador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa said he preferred the farming proposal put forward by Brazil, India and a group of other developing countries. India’s ambassador, K M Chandrasekhar, voiced disappointment over parts of the latest draft text on agriculture, saying: “The distortions will remain substantially, with the result that not enough progress may be achieved in that sector, which is crucial.” Japanese Farm Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said that Japan opposed the draft declaration and wanted it changed ahead of the September 10-14 Mexico meeting.