The World Trade Organisation is currently preparing for its next ministerial meeting, to be held in Hong Kong this December, over two years after the collapse of WTO negotiations in Cancún. Originally, it had been hoped that the Doha Round could have been concluded within three years and, more recently, there has been a move to try to conclude the Round by the end of 2006. Yet progress across the board has been slow and what is needed at Hong Kong is agreement on the framework for “end game” negotiations in 2006. Whether this can be achieved remains to be seen.
Hong Kong will be the venue for the next WTO Ministerial Meeting, which is being held this December
However, despite the disappointment at Cancún, WTO members have continued to look forwards. It was a huge step towards progress with the Doha Round that WTO Member countries were able to agree the so-called “July package” in 2004 which put the negotiations back on track. For the Trade Facilitation agreement, this was a turning point as the package included, for the first time, a commitment to open negotiations in this area, singling it out from the other Singapore Issues.
With the negotiations on Trade Facilitation focusing on three articles of the GATT, there have since been around 70 proposals tabled by WTO Members, both developed and developing countries, for new or improved commitments to bring the 50-year old GATT up-to-date. The Chair of the Negotiating Group, Ambassador Noor of Malaysia, is hopeful of getting political agreement to at Hong Kong to move to text-based negotiations next year based on a WTO Secretariat compilation of the tabled proposals.
In recent years, the non-governmental voice at WTO Ministerials has been strong, particularly from non-business organisations. Although business has a presence, this needs to be strengthened, and with trade facilitation now firmly on the Doha development agenda, trade facilitation agencies need to be part of the picture. In its role as the world's leading trade facilitation agency, SITPRO will be attending the meeting in Hong Kong, as a non-governmental organisation, to lobby for the launch of text-based negotiations and help to ensure that developing countries' capacity concerns, such as those discussed at the Boksburg Group (see What is... The Boksburg Group?), are addressed.
SITPRO’s Chief Executive, Malcolm McKinnon, explained that SITPRO had a simple message for the ministers meeting in Hong Kong, “Trade facilitation is a classic “win-win” issue. It has the potential to deliver economic welfare gains of the same (huge) magnitude as market access.” He hoped that ministers would, “stay focused on the big prize,” during their negotiations.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 54, Autumn 2005
