Move to end long delays in trade rows

Date: 22/06/2000

By Peter Chapman

SINGLE Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein is urging EU governments to end the current requirement for unanimous agreement between member states before the Union can launch trade disputes and sign treaties on intellectual property issues.

The plan, which covers trade in services, is being discussed at the Intergovernmental Confer-ence on treaty reform. Experts say allowing the Union to take decisions on these issues by qualified majority vote would bring the rules into line with most other areas of trade policy.

The Commission acknowledges that it faces an uphill struggle to convince member states to accept the proposal, which was rejected at the last IGC.

But Bolkestein argues that it would boost the EU's efforts to protect its interests at the World Trade Organisation, "strengthening the possibilities to take action against members of the WTO which did not respect the provisions of the agreement". He added: "Such a change is necessary in order to strengthen further the role of the Community at EU level."

Intellectual property rules are currently a 'mixed competence'. This reflects the fact that member states' rules in the intellectual property field are not fully harmonised, but means that a painfully slow bureaucratic procedure must be gone through before other WTO members are hauled before the trade body. The country holding the EU presidency must, for example, sign off requests for consultations at the WTO - the first step in trade disputes.

Experts say the new procedure, if adopted, would enable the Commission and national capitals to coordinate their approach to disputes far more quickly. They add that it would end the problems caused by the fact that when the EU wants to sign an international accord, each member state must ratify the deal individually, even though the Union negotiated collectively.

Single Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein is urging EU governments to end the current requirement for unanimous agreement between Member States before the Union can launch trade disputes and sign treaties on intellectual property issues.