Lamy bids for third world support for new trade talks

Date: 02/03/2000

By Shada Islam

TRADE Commissioner Pascal Lamy will travel to India, Brazil and Egypt over the next few weeks in a bid to secure support from developing countries for a new global trade round.

EU officials say that following the failure of December's World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle, Lamy is determined to give Europeans a higher trade profile in developing countries, distinguishing between Europe's "inclusive" approach to dealing with third-world problems in the WTO and the US' more hardline stance.

"Developing nations need a more important place around the table at the World Trade Organisation," he told MEPs recently. "They must be better integrated into the system and have more effective access to markets."

But resistance to a new round remains strong in many developing nations, amid concern that WTO discussions will once again be dominated by US and EU interests, including demands to link trade access to labour rights and environmental standards. India - along with Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia - is adamant that developing countries must be given more time to assess the impact of liberalisation measures agreed under the 1994 Uruguay Round before taking on new commitments.

As he travels around the developing countries, Lamy will tell his hosts that the EU is listening carefully to their expressions of anger and frustration at being sidelined at the Seattle gathering and the repeated denunciations of unfettered globalisation made at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Bangkok in mid-February.

The Commissioner has suggested that the WTO's absolute priority in the coming months must be to restore the faith and confidence of developing countries in the multilateral trading system.

The EU is hoping to get early approval from the US for a package of zero-duty, zero-quota measures for the world's 48 least-developed nations. Lamy has also won WTO support for a speedy and practical resolution of the "legitimate" problems faced by many developing countries in implementing WTO agreements on intellectual property rights, investment measures and customs valuation.

Deadlines for meeting some of the commitments made by third-world countries will be extended on a case-by-case basis. There will also be WTO technical help for nations which have special problems of implementation.

Lamy argues that once these "confidence-building measures" have restored trust in the WTO, discussions can move to the second stage of launching the round - where all questions, old and new, will be up for negotiation. He insists there is no reason to wait for the installation of a new US Administration and Congress "before getting the plane off the tarmac".

Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy is to travel to India, Brazil and Egypt in a bid to secure support from developing countries for a new global trade round.