InterPress Service
Geneva - The need for wealthy countries to take a more liberal approach on trade issues and avoid widening the gap between rich and poor nations will figure high on the agenda of the May 18-20 ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The differences between developed and developing nations are reflected in the debate now taking place in the WTO's general committee regarding the text of the declaration that delegations from 132 member countries are due to sign.
WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell says that one of the main points of difference among the general committee is the problem of ''application.'' This is the term for complaints lodged by developing countries in regard to the default in the fulfillment of certain aspects of multilateral commerce agreements that benefit developing countries. The text at hand, introduced by the WTO director general, Renato Ruggiero, states that the organization must make every effort to apply the agreements and decisions comprehensively and faithfully in the appointed time.
Delegations from Colombia, India and Egypt, however, hope that the declaration refers to the difficulties that developing countries have in collecting benefits from WTO agreements. In more eloquent terms, Cuba, Uganda and Tanzania have demanded that the text recognize the marginalization of the developing world, especially that of least developed countries, Rockwell said.
Among the application issues still pending, are the realization of commitments made by the industrialized world to compensate countries that are net importers of food, the lack of progress in the textile industry, and the absence of improvement in ''antidumping'' procedures. On the other hand, the WTO technical assistance program for developing countries lacks sufficient resources ''because only two or three industrialized nations contribute', Rubens Ricupero, secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), explained last week.
While developing countries try to recover lost space in the liberalization of commerce, the industrialized world has already scheduled other rounds of negotiations and proposes the opening of new areas in the economy.
The European Union is pressuring for the meeting of the Millennium Round, a multilateral negotiation open to discussion of the liberalization of all pending areas.
The U.S. government, however, is hand-tied by Congress's refusal to grant a fast route of authorization for the international negotiations and was therefore more moderate and cautious before a new round', Ricupero observed in a seminary organized by the Third World Net. Washington prefers to limit the immediate program of the WTO to the establishment of sectorial negotiations, such as those that permitted in the last two years the liberalization of commercial information technology products and basic telecommunications and financial services. U.S. interest is now focused on the Internet, with the objective of establishing agreements for the electronic transmission of goods between frontiers free of customs charges.
While the commerce of the new century is discussed, the WTO also drags with it pending problems raised in the constituent conference of the organization in Marrakesh, such as negotiations in agriculture and other services that should commence by the end of 1999.
As for agriculture, the Group of Cairns, comprised of countries that do not subsidize its agricultural production, wants an urgent beginning of preparations for the negotiations. The European Union, maintaining a protectionist attitude toward the farming sector, is obstructing the opening of negotiations. Although it subsidizes some agricultural areas, the United States supports the negotiations, as UNCTAD pointed out this week when it showed that Washington had ordered a credit line for 2.1 billion dollars to guarantee the exportation of American agricultural products to Asian countries.
Yet, the discussion of the general committee of the WTO regarding the text of the ministerial declaration still makes no mention of the new round of talks proposed by the EU. What is being openly discussed, however, is the projected date of the third ministerial conference that some delegations hope will take place in 1999 while others, like Egypt, prefer to wait until the year 2000 to convene.
There are three conflicting matters at issue within the WTO. Social and environmental clauses are without any apparent progress among work groups and the question of investments remains outside of the organization. The Multilateral Investment Agreement, rejected by the ministerial conference of the WTO held in Singapore in 1996, was taken up again by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last April, although no further progress was made in this latest revision of the pact.
The ministerial declaration also will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of a multilateral commercial system with the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor to the present WTO. Along with the heads of specialized departments, between 15 and 25 heads of state and government will take part in the ministerial conference to celebrate the anniversary, Rockwell stated.
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