The WTO and civil society Comments by the Director-General to US NGOs

The following is a summary of the introductory remarks made by the Director-General, Mr. Renato Ruggiero, at a meeting he held in Washington D.C. with a group of US non-governmental organizations.

The Director-General welcomed the various representatives of civil society and thanked them for accepting the invitation to participate in this dialogue between the WTO and US based NGOs. He pointed to the importance of the meeting as another step in a series of meetings with NGOs from all over the world and reiterated his commitment to continue this process.

Mr. Ruggiero went on to outline the progress that the WTO has been making in Geneva in terms of increasing transparency and improving the dialogue with civil society. He emphasized that this process has benefitted greatly from the constructive engagement and contribution by the NGO community and that this demonstrates, more than anything, that the WTO and civil society to a very large degree share the same concerns and objectives.

First, the WTO Secretariat now holds regular briefings for NGOs on specific meetings of the WTO. These briefings attract a good attendance from all segments of civil society and have proved to be useful for an open and frank discussion on all activities of the WTO.

Second, a new NGO Section on the WTO Web site has been inaugurated and provides a useful and more direct forum for NGO input. This new feature on the WTO Web site is working well, but the WTO would certainly welcome ideas and suggestions on how to improve it.

Third, a list of all WTO related position papers received by the WTO Secretariat is circulated to Members on a monthly basis. Judging by the demand for full copies of these position papers, interest among delegations and in capitals has been encouraging.

Fourth, and very significantly for the NGO community, the issue of amicus briefs to Panels was addressed in the ruling of the Appellate Body on Shrimps and Sea-turtles. It is now clear that panels should accept amicus briefs and then decide how to treat this information

Mr. Ruggiero stressed that these measures have already been implemented and that the WTO Secretariat continuously looks for ways to improve them. He went on to address a number of other issues where work is in progress in Geneva.

First, the issue of more rapid de-restriction of all WTO documents is currently being discussed by Members and several interesting ideas have been floated. There is little doubt that the WTO gradually is moving towards faster, more automatic and more complete de-restriction of documents. To the extent that some documents remain restricted for six months it reflects the fact that they contain negotiating positions which are not yet completely adopted.

Second, the US proposal for earlier publication of panel reports is receiving considerable attention in Geneva. Essentially, the US proposal aims to ensure that once a Panel has produced its final report, the findings and the conclusions will be translated immediately. This would shorten the publication time of the report considerably.

Third, further consultations on how to improve the relationship between the WTO and civil society are being actively pursued in Geneva. President Clinton has suggested that prior to the next Ministerial Conference of the WTO a meeting with civil society could take place. Establishing a more regular consultative process could be useful in terms of this initiative.

Finally, considerable progress has been made on the High Level Symposia on Trade and Environment and on Trade and Development to be held in mid-March. These meetings will be the first time that representatives from civil society will sit around the same table as senior officials from governments, inter-governmental organizations and academics. The meetings will also send a strong signal that the WTO is open to environment and development objectives.

In terms of improving the dialogue between the WTO and civil society and building confidence the significance of these events cannot be overestimated. Confidence building remains a crucial challenge and much work has to be done to improve relations among governments and the development and environment communities.

Mr. Ruggiero concluded by emphasizing the need for cooperation among the different stakeholders in the areas of trade, environment and development. He pointed to the importance of an open, constructive and, above all, inclusive exchange of views in these areas and reminded the representatives of civil society that many of the impressive achievements in the area of transparency are also a result of the constructive work of the NGO community.