"As delegations will
recall, we took two important steps at the 7-8 February
General Council meeting to guide our work forward in the
coming months and to rebuild confidence and momentum in
the trade agenda."Firstly, we set in motion the mandated
negotiations on Agriculture and Services. As you know,
the value and significance of both these negotiations is
enormous. Together, they cover the range of economic
activity from the most basic to the most sophisticated,
and have the potential to improve economic prospects for
people around the world, in both developing and developed
countries.
"The
first Special Session of the Services Council has already
taken place at the end of February in a positive and
constructive atmosphere. In pursuing their negotiating
mandate, Members have agreed to hold further special
sessions back-to-back with regular meetings of the
Services Council with intervals of approximately six
weeks.
"The
equivalent meeting of the Agriculture Committee was held
at the end of last week, and has made a solid start to
the agricultural negotiating process. Members have agreed
on a programme of work for the first phase of the
negotiations, including benchmarks for submission of
negotiating proposals, which will conclude with a
stock-taking session to be held in March of next year.
This is very positive. At the same time, of course, I
have to note that we do not yet have agreement on the
Chair and Vice-Chair of this very important body. I would
be failing in my duty if I did not underline how
important it is for Members to settle these appointments
without delay.
"Beyond
these two negotiations, I also noted in February that the
mandated negotiations and reviews foreseen under the
TRIPS Agreement were also under way. I am pleased to note
that at its meeting on 21 March, the TRIPS Council
held an extensive discussion on carrying forward its work
on each of its built-in agenda items.
"Secondly,
we also launched in February a realistic but important
programme of consultations aimed at producing agreement
on measures in favour of least-developed countries, on
improving the funding and planning of WTO technical
assistance activities, on implementation issues including
transition periods and, finally, on improving internal
transparency and the fuller participation of all Members.
"As
regards these elements, I am working hard together with
the Chairman, my Deputies and with delegations to try to
build agreement, and to be able to report to you in
greater detail by the Easter break. The overall picture
so far is promising, and we're beginning to narrow down
the differences on key issues. I am hopeful that
following more broad-based discussions in the coming
weeks we will be able to take positive action on these
areas at the 3 May meeting of the General Council.
"Specifically,
the LDC package remains a top priority in terms of the
development objectives of the WTO. Clearly, better market
access is vital for these countries. I hope that we will
very shortly have some concrete indications from major
trading economies of what they propose to do in this
regard. Equally clearly market access is not the whole
answer. That is why we are also working urgently to
improve our efforts with other agencies through the
Integrated Framework programme to help build the capacity
to trade. I will be pursuing the improvement of the IF in
meetings with UN agency heads next week, and with the
President of the World Bank and the Managing Director of
the IMF in April. We are also consulting with the aim of
adding as many other elements as possible to assist LDCs
to take full advantage of the opportunities of trade.
"Likewise,
we need to make a more substantial and lasting
contribution to the development of our poorer Members
– within our mandate – through our programme of
technical assistance and training. As you are well aware,
the demand for such assistance far outstrips our
budgetary resources. I am working with delegations on
constructive ways to ensure that the current estimated
annual demand of ten million Swiss Francs for such
assistance can be budgeted on a stable and predictable
basis so that our activities can be planned effectively
over the longer term.
"Another
important set of issues on which we are consulting
concerns implementation, and in particular the transition
periods under various WTO agreements that have expired on
1 January. This issue must be dealt with in a balanced
and sensitive way – it is clearly a key
confidence-building measure. Deputy Director-General
Miguel Rodriguez has been assisting me in these
consultations over the past two weeks, and has reported
to me that we are beginning to see more pragmatism and
flexibility on all sides. Our discussions have so far
been focused on working with individual delegations, and
in the coming weeks will need to be broadened so that
Members can interact with each other on elements of a
multilateral solution. Specific discussion on transition
issues suggests that the number of Agreements we may need
to consider in the immediate term is rather more limited
than we may have previously considered. Also, Members
have shown a willingness to seek resolution of specific
concerns in the multilateral framework in a way that both
meets legal requirements and is sensitive to domestic
political necessities on all sides. On the broader
implementation issues, there is considerable emerging
support for a process to be launched under the overall
direction of the General Council meeting in Special
Session to examine implementation-related concerns such
as those raised by countries in the pre-Seattle process.
"On the
last element – transparency and participation –
I hope that the debate at our meeting today on the basis
of the submissions that the Chairman has invited from
delegations will lead us eventually to agreeing on ways
in which we can function with greater inclusiveness and a
wider sense of ownership by all our Members.
"My
colleagues and I have been also active in developing ways
to increase the participation of smaller WTO Members,
especially those without a resident mission in Geneva.
One of my first acts as DG was to organize a Geneva Week
for these delegations. We are now planning the next one.
I have also appointed a Secretariat staff member as
liaison with non-resident delegations, and we are working
closely with them to make it possible for them to
increase their active presence in the WTO within their
very limited means. I will have some more specific
proposals to make soon."
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