Governments back calls for talks on WTO reform

Date: 13/01/2000

By Simon Taylor

MOST EU governments have thrown their weight behind calls for a special ministerial meeting to consider changes in the way the World Trade Organisation operates.

UK Trade Minister Stephen Byers floated the idea of a ministerial-level meeting to discuss possible reforms of the WTO's decision-making procedures following the collapse of talks on a new round of global trade liberalisation negotiations in Seattle last month.

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has since taken up the idea, calling for a meeting to be held during the French presidency in the second half of this year. Other EU member states including Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland have also voiced support for the plan.

But some EU governments and the European Commission are understood to be sceptical about the proposal, amid concern that concentrating on reform might distract attention from efforts to get agreement on an agenda for a new round.

The Commission is planning to produce its own list of areas in which the WTO's working practices could be reformed in the near future. These are expected to include issues such as the way ministerial conferences are conducted; ensuring a better balance between efficiency and transparency in the organisation's decision-making procedures; and tackling the question of how to involve outside groups such as campaigners and industry associations in discussions.

WTO officials say all 134 members of the organisation are open to any constructive ideas for reform. One added that this would be a good time to tackle the issue "because there is not going to be a lot of progress on the other issues on the table in the next six months".

But he expressed scepticism that there were any "magic formulae" to overcome the difficulties involved in reaching consensus among a group of countries with such disparate interests.

The official rejected claims that developing countries were excluded from special small negotiating sessions in so-called 'Green Rooms" at Seattle, insisting that they formed the majority in most of the sessions.

The official said the WTO would look at a number of other ideas, including abandoning its consensus-based approach in favour of majority voting on procedural issues.

Ambassadors from all the WTO's member countries will hold their first formal discussion on the lessons to be drawn from Seattle at a meeting in Geneva on 7 February.

As preliminary discussions on possible reforms began this week, WTO director-general Mike Moore flew to India to urge the government to support a new round of trade liberalisation talks. Moore told Indian Trade Minister Murasoli Maran that new negotiations were needed urgently to address the "injustice" of the existing agreement.

Most EU governments have thrown their weight behind calls for a special ministerial meeting to consider changes in the way the World Trade Organisation operates.