US says early WTO deal will avoid Seattle battle in Qatar

Date: 22/03/01

By Simon Taylor

THE US ambassador to the EU has warned World Trade Organisation members to strike an early deal on future trade liberalisation to avoid a repeat of the 'Battle of Seattle'.

Richard Morningstar said this week that WTO members should agree on the scope of planned trade liberalisation talks before their ministerial meeting in Qatar in November if they hope to successfully launch a new round. "We can't have a repeat of Seattle. The basic agreement must be reached before we get to Qatar," the ambassador said on Tuesday (20 March) at a European Voice conference on transatlantic relations.

Morningstar's comments were echoed this week by Canada's top trade official, who was visiting Brussels to discuss prospects for launching a new round. Robert Wright, deputy trade minister, said the Qatar meeting needed thorough preparation and should be less ambitious than the Seattle ministerial in 1999.

"We have to be careful that this is set up in such a way to ensure that we don't have another failure," Wright said. "We need to narrow down differences for ministers to consider. In Seattle we had too long a list."

Ministers should focus on getting a general political agreement on what the new round would cover rather than trying to settle every last issue, Wright suggested. "We need to lower our expectations.

We don't need to prenegotiate everything. We should try to achieve agreement on the broad scope [of the round]."

In his speech, Morningstar stressed that the new US administration was deeply committed to global trade liberalisation despite fears that the Bush team was focusing on regional agreements at the expense of multilateral organisations like the WTO.

"Bush has made it clear that trade liberalisation will be a top priority for this administration," he said, adding that the US "can and will pursue bilateral and multi-lateral negotiations concurrently". He pointed out that US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick was planning to ask Congress for the authority to negotiate all types of agreements including for the WTO round and regional deals.

Wright, who met Peter Carl, Commission director-general for trade, and Robert Coleman, consumer safety DG, said that Canada and the EU's position on the agenda for a new round were very close. "We have a common agenda with the EU. We want a comprehensive round but we don't think the round should do everything."

Unlike the US, Canada supports the Union's wish to see competition and investment rules included in the forthcoming trade negotiations. Ottawa is also prepared to have anti-dumping rules discussed in the talks, while Washington is unwilling to make concessions over its use of the policy. "In multilateral negotiations you cannot say we won't look at the most important instrument of trade policy," Wright stated.

Competition Commissioner Mario Monti restated his support at the European Voice conference for a global competition forum which he said would not be an "alternative to a mulitlateral framework at the WTO".

He also confirmed that the European Union remained committed to "proposing that all WTO members should outlaw cartels", but added that "in calling for a WTO agreement, we are not seeking to establish by stealth a global competition authority which would erode the sovereignty of national authorities."

The US Ambassador to the EU has warned World Trade Organisation members to strike an early deal on future trade liberalisation to avoid a repeat of the 'Battle of Seattle'.