Jan 13, 1989

URUGUAY ROUND NEGOTIATING GROUPS ALSO ON HOLD?

GENEVA, JANUARY 11 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN)— GATT Director-General Arthur Dunkel is to hold some "green room" consultations an January 18 on how to proceed further in the Uruguay round negotiations in the light of the failure of the Montreal mid-term review and the procedural decisions there, GATT sources said Wednesday.

The "green room consultations" is the code word for GATT’s informal decision-making process, and is so named after the green wall-paper decor of the GATT Director-General's conference room in Geneva where such consultations are hold.

Countries are invited to these consultations through a non-transparent selection process, and the informal decisions they reach are presented to the formal GATT bodies for approval.

There is a predominance of industrial country representation in these consultations - the U.S., EEC (with its 12 member states present), Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, one of the Nordics, Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary from eastern Europe.

Third world nations include: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Uruguay, Egypt, Nigeria, Zaire (or some other francophone) Tanzania, India, the Asian (Malaysia and/or Singapore), Pakistan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

GATT sources said that until questions about how to proceed further are sorted out, and until solutions are found in the four deadlocked areas, none of the other negotiating groups, whose results are "on hold", are likely to meet as originally scheduled.

Meetings of the groups had been scheduled beginning January 23.

The Ministerial-level meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) at Montreal, unable to reach a consensus on all issues before it, mandated Dunkel, in his capacity as chairman the TNC at official level, to hold "high level consultations" on four items that were identified as requiring "further consideration".

These four items were textiles and clothing, agriculture, safeguards, and Trade-Related Intellectual Property rights including Trade in Counterfeit Goods (TRIPS).

In asking Dunkel to hold high level consultations in these four areas, the Montreal meeting also put "an hold" the results achieved at Montreal in all other negotiating areas.

The TNC also decided that it would meet at level of "high officials" in Geneva in the first week of April, and would review "the entire package of subjects (in the four areas), the results achieved in Montreal and the other items".

Third world sources noted that while in areas other the four, agreements had been reached in the "green room", by their very nature these were amongst a few, and the "results", annexed to the TNC decision at Montreal, had not been adopted by the TNC itself.

Immediately after the Montreal meeting ended, some GATT officials as well as negotiators from the U.S. and other industrialised countries, suggested that while Dunkel held some "high level consultations" an the four issues, the other negotiating groups should resume their work in Geneva from January 23, as per the calendar they had set for themselves.

At the initial post-Montreal consultations held by Dunkel in Geneva in mid-December, this view was reportedly pressed by a number of industrial countries, who sought to make a subtle distinction between the Montreal decision to put "the results achieved an hold", and putting "further negotiations an hold".

However, a number of third world participants reportedly disagreed with this view.

At Montreal the Latin American members of the Cairns Group (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay) had blocked consensus on all the results (achieved in the green room) as also further "green room consultations" a three other issues (textiles, safeguards and TRIPS).

They took this position after the U.S. and EEC reported in the green room their "agreement to disagree an agriculture", and wanted other negotiations to be concluded and the package adopted, while agriculture negotiations would go back to Geneva on the basis of the recommendations received from the agriculture group.

The Latin American Cairns Group members at that stage refused to accept this and this resulted in the unanimous procedural decision of the TNC.

At the consultations held in December, the Latin American members of the Cairns Group reportedly reiterated this view, and were supported by several other third world delegations

In addition, several of them complained about the "non-transparency" of the consultation process in Montreal, and said that in any high level consultations that Dunkel might now hold in the four areas, he should keep all delegations fully informed through periodic meetings of the concerned negotiating groups or the group of negotiations on goods.

Following up an the December consultations, the Latin American Cairns Groups members, along with some other third world countries, reportedly met Dunkel an Wednesday to underscore their view that until solutions were found to the differences in the four areas, and until the TNC met in April to conduct an overall review, the results achieved at Montreal were "on hold".

This meant, they reportedly said, the negotiating groups where results had been put "on hold" could not meet to resume negotiations.

Some third world sources said that while it was not fully clear how Dunkel would proceed and what his ideas were, they did not believe that any of the negotiating groups would meet soon.

Some of them said that it was not clear whether Dunkel, in his consultations on the four areas requiring further consideration, would be holding such consultations at meetings of individual negotiating groups or follow some other procedures. .

GATT sources said a clearer picture would emerge only after next week's green room consultations, but no early meetings of negotiating groups can be expected.

There had been some speculation that Dunkel would engage himself in some "shuttle diplomacy", visiting Brussels and Washington in an effort to solve the agricultural tangle.

However, other third world sources underlined that-all four issues were important, and that the starting point now was the report of the GNG in these four areas to the Montreal meeting.

In this view, they felt that Dunkel would have to hold some "green room" consultations here in Geneva and try to narrow down differences before he can go to the capitals to try to persuade the governments to accept any compromise ideas he could have.

If there is one political message out of Montreal, one third world diplomat commented this week, it is that the results achieved so far are highly imbalanced in favour of the U.S. and other industrial countries, and that for further progress and resumption of the Uruguay round process, there had to be progress in the areas of interest to the third world too.

Another message out of Montreal, he said, was that no one could take for granted that what was acceptable to the U.S. and EEC, and/or other industrialised nations, would be automatically accepted by the third world countries.

Even the so-called "green room consultations" would have to be widened and made more transparent, enabling anyone interested to attend, and not restrict it only to countries whom the secretariat advises and invites another diplomat said.