Feb 27, 1989

NO PROGRESS SINCE MONTREAL COMPLAIN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES.

GENEVA, FEBRUARY 23 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN)— Since the Montreal mid-term review meeting of the Uruguay round in December 1988, there has been no progress in the consultations in the GATT to resolve deadlocked issues.

This was reportedly the general consensus view at an informal meeting of third world countries in GATT Wednesday, participants reported Thursday.

The meeting chaired by Amb. Rubens Ricupero of Brazil would appear to have heard reports on the consultations chaired by GATT Director-General Arthur Dunkel in the four areas of deadlock in the Uruguay round - textiles, safeguards, agriculture and Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Pakistan reported on the textile consultations, India and Hong Kong on the safeguards, Egypt on TRIPS, and Argentina and Mexico on agriculture.

At the end, Colombia’s Felipe Jaramillo would appear to have summed up the general view that there had been no progress in the consultations since Montreal and that in none of the four subjects could it be said that the consultations were even progressing in the right direction.

Delegates were also advised at the meeting of the intention of the GATT Director-General Arthur Dunkel to present a combined paper on all the four subjects at the end of his consultations, perhaps in the week just before the scheduled high-level meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee. This is to be held in first week of April.

Several delegates would appear to have deduced from this move that through this the Director-General would be putting pressure on third world countries to yield ground, and particularly on the issue of intellectual property rights.

It was noted that while on textiles and safeguards the third world countries had already formulated common positions and alternatives, it was necessary for them to undertake a similar process on the intellectual property protection issue. This idea was widely supported, according to participants.

The second round of the Dunkel consultations on agriculture are scheduled for week of March 6 and that on trips for the week of march 13. The final round of consultations on all four subjects are scheduled for week of March 21.

It was noted that the agricultural consultations of Dunkel would be taking place before the U.S.-EEC talks. Several participants said that it was difficult for them to imagine progress in the U.S.-EEC talks on agriculture that would meet the viewpoints of third world countries, both exporters and net-importers.