The Hindu Business Line : Ensure progress in negotiations: WTO official

MEMBERS of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been urged at the end of a recent informal meeting to deliver concrete results by July, 2004 to "ensure the continued progress in the negotiations" so that a completed framework for resumption of global trade talks could be in place.

According to a statement issued in Geneva on Thursday, WTO General Council Chairman Ambassador Mr Shotaro Oshima said that at the recent Trade Negotiating Committee meeting, there were encouraging signs of commitment to progress as well as some warning signals.

He recalled that members agreed in December 2003 that "we would build on the general acceptance of the unbundling of the Singapore issues and explore possibilities of agreements on a multilateral approach on trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement".

Mr Oshima said that while there have been considerable flexibility and pragmatism demonstrated by all sides, there is still a range of positions on the table and there is not yet a convergence on any of the possible scenarios on the two Singapore issues. He said that the task is not to prepare a Ministerial declaration as was the case in Cancun but aiming to take the action necessary at this stage, at the level of the General Council, in order to ensure the continued progress of the negotiations and the work programme as a whole.

Mr Oshima also said there would be a cluster of Ministerial gatherings in May, 2004 (least developed countries in Senegal, OECD in Paris, African Union in Rwanda), through which high-level inputs on key issues could be obtained. Nevertheless, the Geneva process remains the principal vehicle for making the kind of progress that the members need by July, 2004, he said adding that "it is only in Geneva that the July outcome will be finalised".

He said that there would be another General Council meeting in May "where we are not aiming for any key decisions but rather to come out with a positive sense of progress and that we are going to work hard to deliver concrete results by July".

Meanwhile, testifying on April 28, before the House of Representatives' Agriculture Committee, the US Trade Representative Mr.Robert Zoellick said in Washington that the re-start of negotiations depends on continued progress on the issue of trade facilitation and on agreement of a draft document related to agricultural trade.

He also said that the focus of the negotiation framework should "solely" be trade facilitation.

The other Singapore issues pertain to investment, competition and transparency in Government procurement.