7:39 AM Jan 25, 1995

TEXTILE BODY DEADLOCK UNRESOLVED

Geneva 24 Jan (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The deadlock over the membership of the Textile Monitoring Body within the World Trade Organization is still unresolved and until then the WTO General Council and other bodies may not become functional, trade diplomats say.

The developing countries, particularly the textiles and clothing exporters, are firm so far in resisting the attempts of the European Union to force changes in a compromise package put forward in December by Peter Sutherland, and accepted by everyone else.

At a meeting of the informal group of developing countries this week, delegations were critical of the EU's stance and said that though they had problems with the take-it-or-leave-it compromise package put forward by Sutherland, nevertheless as a measure of goodwill they had accepted it.

But they were not agreeable to any further diluting the package.

The trade diplomats say that according to their information, the socalled '113 committee' of the EU member-states dealing with trade issues is meeting in Brussels Wednesday, to be followed by the meeting of the EU Council of permanent representatives, where the EU has to decide whether to accept the formula or not.

Several GATT delegations are somewhat puzzled by the stand of the European Union and its Executive Commission. They suggest that it is a case of the internal problems of "power" within the Commission and its various directorates, as well as the complicated decision-making process of the EU membership, and the attempt of the EC Commission to try to assert its power and influence in the WTO at its start.

For the same reason, the developing countries and in particular the exporting countries, have decided not to yield and allow the Sutherland package to be made a basis for further negotiations and changes.

In December, at the WTO Preparatory Committee's final meetings, India and several other developing countries stressed that the WTO and the annexed multilateral agreements of the Uruguay Round was a single package, and could not be implemented piece-meal.

Though no one spelt out the implications in detail, GATT diplomats said that developing countries to whom the Textiles and Clothing Agreement and its implementation was of high priority might hold up the other parts of the package, and the constitution of the various bodies to administer them, if the Textiles Monitoring Body issue was not resolved.

The first meeting of the General Council of the WTO has been convened for 31 January.

Amb. Kesavapani of Singapore is to be the first chairman of the WTO General Council.

But if the TMB issue is not resolved, rather than holding a meeting of the General Council to start off with a deadlock in constituting various bodies, the meeting might be put off for a few days.

While the WTO agreement has entered into force on 1 January, in practical terms the monitoring and implementation vest with the various bodies constituted in the agreements annexed to it.