Global Policy Forum

By Charlotte Denny and Larry Elliott

Security guards in Maine, sellers of musical scores in Toronto, firms selling bottled gas in Ascunsion and opinion pollsters in the Philippines found they had something in common yesterday. The European Union thinks they have had it too easy for too long.

Ever since 140 countries launched a new round of global trade talks in Doha last November, the backroom boys at the EU have been busy running a fine-tooth comb over their trading partners' economies. Just how busy they have been was revealed yesterday, when the extent of the concessions the EU is demanding from some of its trading partners was leaked to the Guardian.

Laying out in mind-numbing detail the price Brussels is asking for dismantling its cosy system of farming subsidies, the documents require that Europe's businesses should have free access to parts of the world trading system that have hitherto been jealously guarded.

No stone has been left unturned in the search for new markets - even though many of the sectors lined up for European companies are heavily protected on their home turf. Should Chile be allowed to ban foreigners owning land within 50 miles of its borders? Not if Brussels has its way. Nor should there be any reason why Australia's main telecommunications firm, Optus, should be run by an executive born in Brisbane or Sydney, rather than in Barcelona or Stockholm.

The document, all 1,000 pages of it, is not for the faint-hearted. It is volume one of what amounts to the EU's Domesday Book of trade - a lovingly detailed account of all those markets in 28 rich and middle-income countries that discriminate against European firms.

What the EU is demanding of poorer countries has yet to be presented to member states. And that is what is worrying development lobbyists, who fear that the opening up of global trade in services is the thin edge of a very thick wedge which will see the wholesale privatisation of education and health across the globe.

"The scope of these documents is truly terrifying," says Dave Timms, from the World Development Movement. While the EU cannot force any country to meet its demands, fellow World Trade Organisation members, particularly the poorest ones, are desperate to gain access to Europe's rich consumers, putting Brussels in a strong negotiating position.

The minutely itemised demands reveal the EU's approach to what is already shaping up to be a long and difficult set of talks, where Brussels is under enormous pressure to dismantle the expensive protection given to its farmers under the common agricultural policy. Despite trenchent opposition from the French, the WTO's 140 members agreed in Doha that the next round of talks should aim at phasing out agricultural subsidies.

Pascal Lamy, Europe's trade commissioner, is well aware of that. But as a former aide to Jacques Delors, he is enough of a political animal to know that he has no chance of selling a deal in European capitals unless he has won concessions in other areas - particularly services where the EU has a comparative advantage.

Top of the EU list is access to other countries' financial services - the fastest growing area of world trade but one that is still heavily protected.

As Kevin Watkins of Oxfam put it yesterday: "It's a bananas for banking negotiating strategy."

And if the EU's demands seem far-reaching, they are likely to be moderate in comparison with what Washington wants.

"The US demands will be like the EU's with knobs on," says Mr Watkins.

Does this mean that sellers of bottled gas in Paraguay will now be having sleepless nights? Not yet, and perhaps not ever. Negotiating trade agreements is one of the most complex and esoteric jobs known to man.

All governments have their share of policy anoraks, who are prepared to spend month after month arguing about a point of seemingly irrelevant detail, but there is no anorak quite like a trade anorak. The lists of demands and counter-demands that will be pushed across the table at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva would keep negotiators busy at the best of times.

This, of course, is not the best of times. The fragile state of the global economy has made countries extremely wary about making concessions that might hurt their own companies.

Attempts to drive forward the Doha trade talks round will also be hindered by the departure of Mike Moore, the WTO's director-general, who is stepping down this summer to be replaced by Supachai Panichtpakda, the former Thai commerce minister.

Most significantly of all, the decision by the United States to impose tariffs on imported steel has soured the negotiating environment.

Two things are certain. When the Doha round is finally complete, the EU's list of demands will have been scaled down considerably. And that time may be many years away.

Negotiating positions: The EU wishes...

The leaked EU negotiating paper sets out a shopping list of demands for specific countries to open up their markets in services. Some of the highlights:

Malaysia