12:17 PM Nov 12, 1996

WTO BRIEFING FOR LDC MINISTERS !

Geneva 12 (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- Ministers from 29 least developed country members of the World Trade Organization, plus four who are negotiating, are due to meet for three days here (13-15 November) in a WTO-sponsored effort to brief them on the WTO, and enable their more effective participation in the WTO.

The deputy Director-General of the WTO, Mr. Jesus Seade, explained at a press briefing that the WTO would be financing the travel and other costs of the ministers from out of a Norwegian trust fund.

The WTO was also trying to raise funds to enable the Ministers to participate in the Singapore meeting.

At a number of sessions, WTO officials will brief them on the WTO rules and the system, and the plan of action for the least developed countries that the WTO head has been promoting for adoption at Singapore, as well as in outlining the technical cooperation activities of the WTO/UNCTAD/ITC that they could benefit from.

The WTO head, Mr. Renato Ruggiero, promoted early this year the idea of the exports of the least developed countries getting duty free entry, but this was turned down by the Group of 7 industrialized countries to whom he presented it at their Lyon summit in June.

There has been some question about even its legal feasibility under the WTO rules. Some WTO officials say this could be done through a waiver, while others, including the US are doubtful on this.

Ruggiero has been trying to enlist other organizations behind his proposal: he has been canvassing the IMF and the World Bank, as also UNCTAD, and the EU Commission.

With his background at the European Commission in Brussels, and subsequently as Italian trade minister, when development cooperation views were strong in Rome, Ruggiero is seen by many as sincere in trying to do something for the LDCs from day one at his job.

But he has run into hard-nosed trade officials, who are willing to make concessions only to the extent that their domestic markets won't be affected nor their markets abroad.

The EC Commission, as also some of the major industrial nations say they would be willing to provide it to the sub-Saharan African LDCs, but not to the Asian LDCs.

The cynical among the trade officials in Geneva interpret this to mean that the Europeans and others are willing to provide trade concessions which would not be able to be exploited by the beneficiaries to compete in the markets of the Europeans.

Bangladesh is identified to be an LDC which could exploit the concessions to compete in the European markets.

Seade told a press briefing that at a recent UNCTAD meeting, he was surprised to hear from Tanzania and Bangladesh that their problems were not due to market access barriers, but rather supply side problems and inability to get investments and other inputs for diversification.

Seade suggested that the duty free imports would enable cocoa producers in Africa to diversify into cocoa-butter and chocolate production and exports, and they could attract enterprises like Nestles to set up production.

But Seade admitted that the Uruguay Round has not tackled the problems of tariff peaks and tariff escalation and there were also other problems that came in the way of the LDCs taking advantage of special market access benefits.

However, he said, the WTO was hoping to have a wider meeting next year, along with some funding agencies and bilateral donors, on measures to improve the supply capabilities of these countries.

While the WTO effort, to which UNCTAD has lent support, is seen as an attempt to raise visibility for the issue, other trade officials view it suspiciously as part of the EC/Ruggiero drive to get investment negotiations into the WTO, and split the developing countries.

Even some of the LDCs have been looking suspiciously at this week's meeting.

Part of the blame lies with the WTO itself -- in the way it went about organizing this meeting.

The decisions to hold the meeting was taken without adequate consultations with others, and invitations were signed by Ruggiero and sent out when he was in Washington for the IMF and World Bank meetings.

Missions of the LDCs represented here came to know of the initiative only when they got calls from their ministers in capitals.

Some of the LDC ambassadors privately complained that this was diplomatically unacceptable breach of protocol and also they knew nothing about it, when their ministers called them up, and they thus were embarrassed. Even after that it took some days to get the information from the WTO secretariat here.

The original programme for the LDC ministers also looked more like that for a trade policy training course for their officials. Directors and officials of the WTO were to have lectured on various aspects of the WTO rules -- ranging from rules of origin to the dispute settlement process etc.

Interventions from the LDC ambassadors here, and joint consultations between WTO and UNCTAD officials, changed the format somewhat.

On the first day, there will be an opening session with a lecture by the WTO General Council chair on the rules-based system for development, with a speech by the South African Trade Minister on integration through trade. There will be another session for a briefing by the Singapore ambassador on arrangements for Singapore, to be followed by a general debate on an overview of the multilateral system.

At the insistence of some of the LDC missions, the LDC ministers will have a private session (outside the WTO building) for their own consultations. At this session, to be held at UNCTAD, they are expected to be joined by representatives of other LDCs in Geneva, who are not members of the WTO.

On Thursday, there are sessions where they will listen to further addresses on 'sustainable development, globalization and trade of LDCs', on international trade and growth and challenges for LDCs, on trade rules in gods and services.

The afternoon session is to be devoted to discussion on supply-side blockages and the Action plan for LDCs.

The Conference will end with a closing session on Friday afternoon to be addressed by UNCTAD Secretary-General, Mr. Rubens Ricupero on promotion of Equitable Economic Development and by WTO head, Mr. Renato Ruggiero on participation of LDCs in the multilateral system and the road to Singapore.