The art of the possible

Date: 07/12/00

Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy has launched a campaign to persuade the EU to lower its sights for the next set of global trade negotiations.

He is urging Union governments to be more flexible about their demands for competition and investment rules to be put on the agenda and show greater understanding of the problems faced by developing countries in a bid to get the new round off the ground.

His remarks have already sparked a fierce debate among member states, with many opposed to any backtracking on the EU's current tough stand. But amid all the sound and fury which this issue is likely to generate over the coming weeks, there is now a widespread recognition that the Union will have to give ground if its hopes of persuading others to agree to a new round are to be realised.

Before EU leaders rush to judgement, they should remember the old adage that politics is the art of the possible - and what the Seattle talks in December 1999 showed was that it would not be possible to launch a new trade round without some concessions to the Americans and to developing countries. The former US administration was adamantly opposed to linking an overall World Trade Organisation deal to an agreement on anti-trust and investment rules, and if George W. Bush moves into the White House, Washington is likely to harden rather than soften its stance. Developing countries have also made it clear that they are not prepared to discuss new areas of trade liberalisation without any acknowledgement of the difficulties they are facing in implementing existing accords.

If this impasse is to be broken, someone needs to make the first move. If everybody sticks to their entrenched positions for fear of giving more ground than they need to before the negotiations get under way, they will never get off the starting blocks.

It will be hard for the new US administration to soften its stance in the wake of the domestic political turmoil of recent weeks and developing countries have made it clear that they will not agree to a new round without concessions from their richer neighbours. The ball is therefore firmly in the EU's court if it is to have any hope of reviving the process. Lamy's remarks at a weekend meeting of Union trade ministers show that he recognises this. It is now up to governments to do the same.