August 23, 1999
1. Preservation of economic spaces within the multilateral trading system to implement market oriented development policies and full implementation of the special and differential provisions in the WTO agreements.
2. Mandated negotiations on further liberalization of agiculture, including to address issues of food security, income levels of rural poor and net-foood-importing countries.
3. Mandated negotiations on progressive liberalization of the services sectors with emphasis on developed countries commitments on movement of natural persons.
On trade and environment, delegates agreed that "environment is ab initio a non trade issue, and that all legitimate environmental concerns can be accommodated within the existing WTO provisions, including Article XX of GATT 1994. Delegates agreed that the work programme in the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) should continue. Since trade is seldom at the root of environmental problems, they were particularly concerned with attempts to give legitimacy to protectionism in the garb of environmental concerns.
Delegates urged the Ministers at Seattle to clearly recognise that environmental standards differ from country to country and that the solution lies in mutual recognition of only product-related standards rather than harmonisation of environmental standards. In order to show the mutual supportiveness of trade and environment, trade distortive agricultural export subsidies should be removed by the developed countries and biological resources and traditional knowledge of indigenous communities should be respected in VTO rules and benefits arising out of their use equitably shared with them. The delegates should also recommend that in cases of proprietary technologies or substances mandated for use by international agreements or national environmental laws, owners of intellectual property should be required to sell them at fair and most favourable terms and conditions."
Consensus was also reached in "rejecting" any linkage between trade and core labour standards. "[Delegates] decided to resolutely oppose any renewed attempt to raise this issue in the WTO." The sixteen members of the G-15 are Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. In parallel to the official meeting, civil society groups from 25 developing countries met in bangalore to this dicuss the same agenda.
India has been among the most vocal in the developing world calling for a "no new issues" approach to the next round of trade talks. India, Malaysia and other supporters want developed countries to honour Uruguay Round commitments with respect to concessions and benefits for developing countries before moving forward full force with new trade negotiations. There were, however, hints last week that India may not be totally averse to discussing new issues at the Seattle ministerial meeting. In what is seen by some analysts as a shift in India's stand, the commerce minister said there was a need to carefully examine the proposals for inclusion of each new issue in the WTO agenda, based on its relevance or relationship to trade apart from its implications on the policies and development of the developing countries.
In related news, the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) earlier this month announced its opposition to non-trade related issues (labour, environment) in the WTO agenda. SAARC also called on WTO Members to stop piracy of traditional knowledge to protect the rights of farmers in developing countries.
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