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WTO Update

WTO releases new compromise to unlock global trade talks

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has released a new compromise text in an attempt to overcome resistance to a deal in global trade talks, notably on agriculture. The new draft framework was handed over to the 147 member states. The revised compromise setting out the way ahead for the deadlocked talks on bringing down trade barriers in new areas, reinforced provisions to open up global export competition for farm products, according to a copy of the text. It maintained the thrust of eliminating export barriers, which would affect principally wealthy European countries, Japan, and South Korea.

On the sensitive topic of bringing down protective barriers on industrial products ranging from microchips to toys, a key demand by industrialised countries, the text remained largely unchanged. It is not clear how much the agreement struck by the United States, European Union, Australia, Brazil and India on the thorny issue of farming, influenced the revised compromise.

EU, developing nations remain divided over cuts in tariffs

The European Union and developing countries in the G-90 group remained divided over the issue of cuts in industrial import tariffs. "The EU trade commissioner Mr Pascal Lamy said he did not understand our opposition on industrial tariffs," a delegate from an African country in the G-90 said. But the European Union, which wants to open up access to markets in developing countries, believes that the formula for industrial tariff cuts contained in the July 16 compromise is "the minimum that we can accept", Mr Lamy’s spokeswoman Ms Arancha Gonzalez said.

Further highlighting the tough negotiations that remain, African nations indicated they may refuse to sign the overall accord unless proper significance is attached to their concerns about subsidies paid to cotton producers in rich countries, mainly the United States.

Closed door talks by big five spark outrage at WTO

Some members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are outraged at secret debates among five key players including India on how to salvage global trade talks, with one delegate warning that a price would be paid. The comment came as Australia, Brazil, the European Union, India and the United States wrapped up two days of closed door talks and handed their "guidance" on how to overcome rifts on farm-related stumbling blocks to the WTO’s chief farming negotiator Mr Tim Groser. "It is catastrophic," declared Switzerland’s chief trade negotiator Mr Luzius Wasescha, referring to the negotiation prior to the key WTO meeting. The so-called five interested parties (FIPs) "consider themselves to be the leaders of the world and they are not, they are not even able to negotiate properly", he told a group of reporters outside the WTO’s Geneva headquarters. Asked to sum up the feeling of member states who were not a party to the debate among the five, Mr Wescha said "total frustration", describing the rest of the WTO as "uninterested members as only five are interested". He warned that "the price will be paid", declining to be more specific.

Meanwhile a European trade official argued that the discussions between the five, which represent both the developed and developing world that so often clash during WTO debates, would be "very helpful" in producing an overall accord.

Meanwhile, the WTO director general welcomed the agreement between the five key members. "I welcome the agreement on agriculture among five key members of the WTO," the director general Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi said in a statement. "But I must caution that no WTO agricultural framework deal is possible without consensus from the entire membership of the organisation."

EU ministers to meet on sidelines of WTO meeting

European Union ministers held a formal council meeting in Geneva to discuss the crucial global trade talks under way in the Swiss city, the Dutch presidency of the EU said.

"We are still confident of a positive outcome but it is clear that there are still a lot of things to do," the Dutch economics minister Mr Jan Brinkhorst said. Mr Brinkhorst spoke following an informal ministerial briefing by the EU negotiators, European Trade commissioner Mr Pascal Lamy and agriculture commissioner Mr Franz Fischler. But he emphasised the EU ministers had not seen a revised version of the compromise proposal that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is preparing, and dismissed any comment on the detail of the talks as "premature." The comments came as WTO chief negotiators struggled to reconcile differences between its 147 members on bringing down more trade barriers. Mr Brinkhorst underscored the EU was still seeking a "balance framework" with the other areas of the draft, including industrial tariff barriers and "Singapore issues" - currently trade facilitation in the text. "Nothing is concluded until everything is concluded," he said.