9:39 AM May 15, 1996

MORE DISCUSSIONS AT WTO ON SINGAPORE AGENDA

Geneva 15 May (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- Members of the World Trade Organization had some wide-ranging, but inconclusive, discussions Wednesday, at an informal Heads of Delegations (HOD) meeting chaired by WTO Director-General Renato Ruggiero, on new trade issues being pushed by one or the other delegations for the Singapore Ministerial meeting in December.

The informal group has before it some four 'non-papers' on the agenda for the Singapore meeting, and received three more at Wednesday's meeting.

These non-papers include one from the US on government procurement, another from Canada on investmet issues, a third from Hong Kong on WTO rules (on anti-dumping, rules of origin etc) in a globalizing world economy where production takes place in many locales before the final assembly of a product, review of implementation problems by ASEAN.

Of the three 'non-papers' put forward at Wednesday's meeting, one is by ASEAN on the built-in agenda of the WTO agreements, one by the United States on trade and labour standards, and a paper by South Korea on regionalism and the multilateral trading system.

At today's meeting, many delegations re-emphasized the top priority to be given at Singapore on the implementation of the Uruguay Round results.

The existing bodies of the WTO, it was stated, should review the specifics of the implementation of the agreements which they are overseeing and submit reports.

In respect of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, it was stressed that the WTO Council on Goods should itself take up and review the implementation of this agreement.

In the discussions on proposed new issues, and procedures for dealing with them, several delegations reportedly stressed the need to agree first on the criteria to be used in selecting new issues.

In the discussions, there was sharp questions and opposition to the labour standards being brought up. There were also references to the new mandate given at UNCTAD-IX Midrand to UNCTAD undertaking a study on the issues relating to the Multilateral Framework on Investment, and the need for the WTO to await the outcome of this study and discussions on it at UNCTAD.

Ruggiero said he would shortly hold consultations with delegations on how to proceed in general, and in particular on the new issues.

In his consultations, he is also to ascertain possible substantive content for the Ministerial Declaration or Communique that the EU has proposed as an outcome of the Singapore meeting.

The next HOD meeting is to be held on 17 June, and a second meeting (before the summer break) in the second half of July, perhaps just before the formal meeting of the WTO General Council set for 27 July.

Ruggiero hopes to be able to report on the specifics to the 17 June meeting, meanwhile giving an opportunity to delegations to raise any items they wished to.

By the September meeting, he hopes to seek the consensus of the membership on the exact items to be on the Singapore agenda.