Mar 24, 1990

NEGOTIATIONS GETTING WORSE, COMPLAIN THIRD WORLD NATIONS.

GENEVA MARCH 22 (BY CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN) -- Dissatisfaction with the continuing imbalance and asymmetries in the Uruguay Round negotiating processes were again voiced Thursday at the meeting of the informal group of Third World countries in GATT.

As part of their efforts to undertake better consultation and coordination among themselves, the informal group has been meeting every week to review the progress in the various negotiating groups.

At Thursday's meeting there were reviewed calls for the GATT Director-General and chairmen of various negotiating groups coming to the informal and report on the state of play.

Other issues discussed at the meeting included the outcome of the informal meeting of senior trade officials from 18 Third World countries in New Delhi this week, the issue of GATT actions on Domestically Prohibited Goods and Other Hazardous substances, an issue raised as long ago as 1982 and now before a GATT working party, as well as problems being faced by Venezuela in gaining accession to GATT due to the "demands" made on it to renounce its GATT rights even before entry.

On the Uruguay Round processes, Chile reportedly pointed out that the situation, since the group had issued its statement in February, had become worse.

Chile cited in this connection the efforts of the ICs in the group on Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) where the GATT secretariat was being pressed into service to draft new rules of origin. Chile contrasted this with the way the secretariat was blocked from collating and presenting a document listing the kind of import restrictive measures that GATT panels over these 40 years had held to be GATT illegal, and hence would have to be rolled back.(At the informal consultations at the Sessional Committee or the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board over a G77 resolution on trade issues, the U.S. reportedly made clear that unless it achieved its objectives in the new themes - TRIPs, TRIMs and Services - it would make no concessions on any market access issues or on integrating Textiles and Clothing sector into the GATT).

The negotiations in the group on Natural Resource-based Products, Chile added, was also going far away from the original intent of the mandate.

On the New Delhi meeting, India made available to the group the text of the Chairman's summing up at the meeting, while the Amb. Rubens Ricupero of Brazil and Amb. Chak Mun See of Singapore, both of whom had attended the New Delhi meeting, explained that the discussions there had essentially built upon the statement of the informal group in February.

The only new point that had come up at Delhi was about the proposal for an ITO which was seen as an attempt at unifying the dispute settlement procedures and mechanisms (under various agreements including on the new themes) and which was "unacceptable to developing countries".On other issues, there was widespread support for Nigerian proposals on a possible GATT framework of Rules to deal with exports of domestically prohibited goods and other hazardous substances. The subject is to come up before the Working Party on April 2.Venezuela which is negotiating its accession to GATT reported to the group that the working party looking into the subject was to adopt its report by the end of March. However the issues being raised, and the demands being made on Venezuela, were of wider interest and concern. Venezuela was being asked to commit itself, as the price of entry and even before joining, to end all export subsidies, agree to accede to several of the Tokyo Round codes and abolish all quantitative restrictions, including justified ones that would to protected under GATT Article XVIII: B (restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons).