10:22 AM Mar 18, 1996

US, EU RAISE NEW ISSUES FOR SINGAPORE, OTHERS DEMUR

Geneva 18 Mar (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) had a first discussion Monday on the first Ministerial meeting at Singapore in December this year -- with the comments and discussions ranging from the nature of the meeting (a ceremonial one as in Marrakesh or a business-like one with Ministers focusing on specific agenda issues and taking decisions or even negotiating on them) and to the kind of agenda and new issues that could be raised and addressed.

The meeting at level of heads of delegations, chaired by the WTO Director-General Renato Ruggiero, trade officials said, was intended to be an organizational one -- on the shape of the Singapore meeting and how to shape up its agenda -- and delegations were expected to come back with their views on the ideas put forward by the WTO head at the next meeting on 15 April.

In his own introductory presentation, a copy of which was circulated to the delegations after the meeting, Ruggiero said that the purpose of the informal meetings was to take up and discuss issues that delegations wished to see addressed at Singapore and not being dealt with in the normal WTO machinery. A number of such topics, he noted, were under discussion in informal meetings both in Genera and in capitals and a number of delegations had requested that certain topics be raised. The concluding remarks of the Chairman at Marrakesh had listed a number of issues which members wanted to address in the context of the WTO's future work programme, Ruggiero noted.

"If we are to develop a consensus for the Singapore meeting, we will need to begin discussing such issues in this group in the near future," he said, adding that this item would be a major agenda item for future HOD meetings. Ruggiero said that those not ready to address the new issues Monday should do so at the future meetings and submit 'non-papers' to facilitate such discussion.

Though Ruggiero suggested discussions Monday should focus on the organizational issues, the United States made presentations on the inclusion in the new agenda of issues of bribery and corruption and trade, and trade and labour standards.

The European Union for its part aired its objective of getting trade and investment and trade and competition policy issues to be addressed at the WTO.

But a whole range of countries, WTO sources, said they had concerns over the new issues and wondered whether they were not going too far in addressing new issues, ahead of discussions on the implementation of the Uruguay Round which, everyone had agreed, should be the main focus of the Singapore meeting.

Several participants reportedly referred in this connection to the position set out by the Singapore Trade Minister at a recent meeting of a few countries at Brisbane in Australia, on the criteria for deciding the WTO taking on new issues.

The Singapore Trade Minister, Mr. Yeo Cheow Tong, had said at Brisbane that before the WTO taking up any new issues, three questions must be addressed: whether the issue was 'trade-related' whether WTO is the best forum to address the issue and even if these two criteria were satisfied is the issue mature for negotiation within the WTO? This last, Yeo said, would apply to new issues meeting the first two criteria, but where the requisite analytical work and comprehension was still at a nascent stage. In such cases, it might be better to establish an informal committee or working group to study the issue, raise collective awareness and build consensus among members before contemplating formal negotiations.

Referring to this, a number of participants reportedly said that before a new items could be accepted it should have the consensus of the membership, and there must be a balance on the issues between the industrial and developing world. At some point there should be a limitation on the basis whether the issues to be considered were truly trade-related and whether the WTO was the best forum to deal with the issue. Care must be taken not over-burden the WTO agenda

While the issue of new agenda items is expected to be joined at the next meeting, trade diplomats said that some of the key protagonists of the new issues were planning informal consultations outside the WTO on the new agenda items being pushed by the major trading partners.

Canada, which has already convened and held one informal consultations on the idea of a multilateral investment agreement (MIA) is planning to hold another meeting later this week, according to trade diplomats.

It has been generally agreed, after a heads of delegations level meeting of the WTO General Council earlier this month that preparations for the Singapore meeting should be at three levels.

At one level, the various WTO bodies overseeing implementation of particular agreements would look at the implementation and shape up the issues for consideration of the Ministers at Singapore.

The informal heads of delegations meeting under Ruggiero would meet monthly to look at the overall picture and any issues not within the specific focus of the WTO bodies, including the new trade issues.

The WTO General Council would oversee the whole process.

On the format of the Singapore meeting, Ruggiero suggested that the choice lay between a ceremonial one as in Marrakesh, with the meeting in plenary sessions and ministers delivering speeches, and a business-like meeting with set agenda that ministers would address and take decisions or even engage in negotiations on them.

While there was a general feeling in favour of a business-like meeting, the Europeans suggested a hybrid compromise of the Singapore meeting having a plenary every day for ministers to speak (mostly for consumption back home) and another for business-like work on agenda issues.

Delegates were near unanimous that the Singapore meeting should concentrate on implementation of the Uruguay Round accords, and on the ongoing negotiating processes -- the basic telecom negotiations due to end next month, that on maritime services, and a number of others in the services sector and the other substantial ones stemming from the Marrakesh agenda.

While Trade and Environment was also identified by some as an issue requiring separate treatment and decisions, others felt that there was no particular difference between this item and others stemming from the Marrakesh mandate and implementation issues.

Another agenda item for Singapore was the issue of further liberalisation and possible adjustments to the implementation process such as for an accelerated tariff cuts, and related to these the built-in agenda for future negotiations for further liberalisation - a new round of liberalisation on trade in services, further agriculture liberalisation and other questions.

Whether these could be addressed individually or whether at some point a new round of negotiations involving all these would be more suitable was also raised.