WTO: 2007 NEWS ITEMS

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Report by the Chairman of the Trade Negotiations Committee

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

In my last report to the General Council in October, I highlighted that the negotiations had started again to move ahead in earnest. Today I believe that we are closer to achieving the major goal we all share – establishing modalities in Agriculture and NAMA, which in turn would pave the way to the conclusion of the Round. It is surely doable and again we are closer to our goal today, but it is not yet done.

Since my last report, the TNC has held one informal meeting on 30 November. My opening remarks at that meeting were made available to delegations in document JOB(07)/191, and I would like to underline a few points I made then.

In my remarks, I gave a brief overview of the progress made in the negotiations across the board. More progress is needed of course, starting with Agriculture and NAMA, and we must aim to step up the pace in all areas, and prepare for the final phase of the negotiations.

The discussion at our meeting was useful and frank. It reflected a widely shared understanding that substance is driving the process, starting with Agriculture and NAMA. Securing agreement on the modalities continues to be our primary focus, but it was also clear from the discussion the importance that participants attach to progressing on the other issues in the negotiations. In this respect, the Single Undertaking remains the basic guarantee to all participants.

The different negotiating issues are moving at their own rhythm and Chairmen's texts will appear as the substantive discussions in the Negotiating Groups ripen these issues. It is therefore important that we keep a sustained pace of work in all Negotiating Groups. I believe that this is the best way to ensure that all issues receive appropriate treatment so that they can come to full maturity in time to conclude the Round next year.

While circulation of the revised draft modalities texts in Agriculture and NAMA had originally been foreseen in November, it is now clear, particularly in Agriculture, that a bit more time would allow more details to be settled, which would allow the Chair to table a more comprehensive revised text. Both the Agriculture and NAMA Chairs will resume their consultations in early January, following which they intend to circulate their revised texts somewhere around the end of January.

The establishment of the modalities should then be about one month later, which is likely to necessitate a horizontal process – that is, one covering both Agriculture and NAMA together. We will only know at what level this horizontal process will need to take place once we have seen how much work remains to be done to get to modalities.

I think we all agree that the modalities are the gateway to concluding the Round. Once they are in place, a new phase in the negotiations would open with three components that could run in parallel: scheduling agriculture and NAMA, tabling final offers and scheduling in services, and finalizing the other rule-making parts of the negotiations.

Since our informal meeting on 30 November, work has continued across the board. The process continues to be text-driven in key areas, and it is substance which drives the texts. The aim of circulating draft texts is to give the negotiators a basis from which they can work. The Chairs are providing their texts to assist the negotiators – that is their role, and they are well aware that subsequent revisions of their initial texts will be necessary. This is, in my view, the only way to move towards consensus.

As I foreshadowed in my remarks on 30 November, the Rules Chairman has now circulated his draft consolidated texts on anti-dumping and subsidies and countervailing measures, including fisheries subsidies. The reactions to his texts have been understandably varied. This reflects the significance of these texts and the important areas they cover. It is clear, however, that the Rules negotiations have now moved to a new level of specificity and this is a welcome development.

In the area of Trade Facilitation, progress has also been registered on the bottom-up drafting process initiated last month. Similarly, in the S&D Work Programme, text-based discussions have progressed on the Agreement-specific proposals and the Monitoring Mechanism, and as we will hear from the CTD Special Session Chairman later today, he intends to come back to these discussions early next year.

In other areas, some differences have become more apparent over recent days, in Services and Trade and Environment, for example. Without in any way diminishing the importance of the positions involved, I believe we can see these too as evidence that the negotiations overall are moving to a more intensive phase.

The high-level political commitment on every side to concluding the Round successfully continues to be reiterated constantly. It has been very much a prominent feature of the contacts and meetings I have had since I last reported to the General Council in October. The challenge remains to give practical effect to this commitment and to do it without delay.

While our major focus must remain on substance, we will also have to keep an eye on the clock. As we all know, time and tide wait for no man. If we agree on modalities early next year, I believe that we should be able to conclude the Round before the end of 2008.

Finally, at the 30 November informal TNC, I provided a brief update on the issues of GI extension and the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD. Since my last report in July, DDG Yerxa has continued to hold consultations on my behalf in various formats on these issues. During his consultations, the proponents on both of these issues proposed language which would provide for a commitment to negotiate in these two areas. These proposals met opposition from other Members. After the 30 November informal TNC, Mr. Yerxa has held open-ended consultations on these issues, which did not reveal changes in delegations' positions. Mr. Yerxa will continue his consultations with a view to finding common ground.

That concludes my report.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

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