Apr 4, 1989
CLOUDY OUTLOOK FOR CRUCIAL TNC MEETING APRIL 5.
GENEVA, APRIL 3 , BY CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN – GATT Director-General Arthur Dunkel resumed Monday his final round of "green room" consultations in four areas of the Uruguay round where deadlocks developed at Montreal - textiles and clothing, safeguards, agriculture and Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights ('TRIPS). The consultations, which began Friday, are in preparation for the meeting at high official level of the Uruguay round Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) Wednesday. As the "green room consultations" resumed Monday morning at the GATT, third world participants said the outlook for the TNC meeting was uncertain and dicey. They blamed this on the efforts of the U.S. and other industrial nations to tilt the already imbalanced package that emerged at Montreal even further in their favour through the "mini-package" in the four areas of deadlock. In other developments over the weekend, while the U.S. and EEC would appear to have moved closer to each other in agriculture to reach an agreement, this appears to have been at the expense of the Cairns Group and third world countries. At a meeting Sunday evening between the united states and the members of the Cairns Group the U.S. is reported to have advised that it would not put any more pressure on the EEC to modify its stands, but that the cairns group was welcome to get any concessions from the European Community. According to third world sources, the cairns group was also told by the U.S. that the nature of its understanding with the U.S. meant that since the EEC’s common agricultural policy was not to be subject of negotiations, the U.S. agricultural waiver too would not be the subject of negotiations in terms of long-term accords. This reportedly evoked some sharp comments from the cairns group members, with Canada accusing the United States of "double standards". The Sunday meeting between the U.S. and cairns group was preceded by a day-long meeting of a drafting group on the agriculture text. The Cairns Group has put forward a number of amendments to the Dunkel text to get firmer commitments on both the long-term reforms and on short-term measures. The EEC has rejected all of them. In the green room consultations on Saturday, when general comments were made by the participants on Dunkel’s TRIPS text, a number of third world countries, speaking with varying nuances, reportedly expressed themselves against the Dunkel text and in favour of the text put forward at the previous consultations by Egypt. The U.S. for its part reportedly took a stand that same saw was perhaps a tactical one, rejecting the Dunkel text on TRIPS and insisting on negotiations in the round about adequate standards for Intellectual Property Rights (IPRS), norms for IPRS, and effective enforcement and dispute settlement - all within GATT. The IPRS issue was an essential element of the Uruguay round for the United States, and without it the Uruguay round would never have been launched. Without negotiations on an adequate GATT framework on IPRS, the Uruguay round would not be allowed to continue, and without an agreement in the round dealing with these issues, it would not be allowed to end either. Brazil had earlier pointedly rejected the Dunkel text pointing out that it had not taken into account at all the viewpoints and concerns of third world countries. Earlier, a number of industrial countries reportedly spoke in favour of the Dunkel text, but with some of them wanting it to be strengthened further. Hungary, Israel and Hong Kong also reportedly supported the Dunkel text as a basis for negotiations. Egypt, which had tabled the third world position at the earlier meeting, reportedly did not speak, while India, Colombia, Chile, Pakistan, and Tanzania were among those who spoke in favour of the text informally put forward by Egypt. Argentina in general comments on the entire Dunkel paper reportedly viewed the text on TRIPS as in the other three areas as an excellent basis for negotiations, and offered to adopt a "more constructive" position when the TRIPS text was discussed in detail. But some participants noted that this argentine comment was before the U.S. meeting with the Cairns Group on Sunday, and the argentine stand could depend very much on what happens in agriculture. After consultations on safeguards and textiles, Dunkel was due Monday to take up the TRIPS issue for a second reading of his paper and for comments on specific points there. The Montreal ministerial meeting had reached tentative accords in eleven areas, but was deadlocked on the four items. The agreements reached in the eleven areas were "put on hold", while Dunkel, in his capacity as chairman of the official level meetings of the TNC was mandated to hold consultations on the four areas and find consensus solutions. The meeting of the TNC at high official level on April 5 is to review the whole package and take decisions to enable the Uruguay round processes to resume again. After three rounds of consultations in each of the four areas, Dunkel had presented on March 22, just before the easter holidays, a working paper outlining his suggestions in each of the four areas. At that time, on a cursory glance, many third world delegations privately complained that the Dunkel texts were partisan and favoured the industrial north, and tilted the overall balance further in favour of the industrial countries and the united states. At an informal meeting of the third world countries in GATT after the easter holidays, a number of delegations spoke to point out that the Montreal package itself was an imbalanced one, and the Dunkel text in the four deadlocked areas had made it even more imbalanced. They noted on textiles and clothing and safeguards the texts in effect only provided for procedural decisions to continue negotiations, but without specific directions on the disputed points. In agriculture while the paper had sought to balance the U.S.-EEC viewpoints, it had made little accommodation to meet either the views of the cairns group or of the net food-importing third world countries. But on TRIPS the viewpoints of the third world in the consultations had been completely ignored. The general view that appeared to have emerged at the informal third world group meeting was that, in tactical terms. The Dunkel texts on agriculture, textiles and safeguards could be taken as a basis for further negotiations and improved upon in specific areas through amendments. However, the Dunkel texts on TRIPS was seen as so heavily tilted in favour of the industrial nations that it might not be a sound basis for further work. The view also came up at the third world meeting that even the services text, agreed upon in green room consultations at Montreal, had not reflected the development objective mandated by the Punta del Este declaration, while concepts sought by the U.S. - national treatment, transparency, and progressive liberalisation - had been spelt out in some detail in terms of future negotiations. This imbalance, it was felt by some, should be redressed at the meeting at high official level of the TNC, when the Montreal package on hold and the results in the four areas are to be reviewed. There was need to ensure an overall balance in the mid-term package, as well as within the four areas, some delegates reportedly felt.