SOUTH'S STRESS ON EVALUATION, CORRECTIVE ACTION

8:20 AM Sep 29, 1993

SOUTH'S STRESS ON EVALUATION, CORRECTIVE ACTION
Geneva 28 Sep (TWN) -- The need for a proper evaluation of the outcome of the Uruguay Round negotiations in the area of trade in goods, as mandated by the Punta del Este Declaration, to be undertaken in time to enable any corrective actions needed, has been stressed at the Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD during its discussion of developments in the Round.

The Punta del Este declaration has mandated such an evaluation on how far the outcome of negotiations in the various areas have fulfilled the objectives, promises and stipulations relating to the developing countries.

Speakers from the developing countries at the Board generally agreed with the indicative criteria for such an assessment suggested in a conference room paper of the UNCTAD secretariat.

Earlier, at an informal meeting of the Board, the GATT Deputy Director-General Anwarul Hoda, in briefing the members on the recent developments, had said that the Chairman of the TNC was now carrying out extensive consultations on the most appropriate time for evaluation of the results from the viewpoint of developing countries.

In their other comments, developing countries also said that the proposals made so far by the industrialized countries on market access (including the Quad accords at the G7 Summit in July in Tokyo) would not yield any meaningful benefits to them.

These offers and proposals, they further said, did not also reciprocate the substantive unilateral trade liberalization measures undertaken by the developing countries since the launch of the Round.

The need for greater transparency in the negotiations and concluding them by 15 December (if the momentum generated is not to be lost) was also stressed.

An early and successful conclusion, it was argued, was the best way to restore non-inflationary growth in the world economy, while any failure would entail the risk of a return to unilateralism and protectionism.

Speaking for the group of Latin American and Caribbean countries, Leonora de Sola Saurel of El Salvador expressed the concern of this group over the unsatisfactory state of the negotiations on market access. These negotiations, she said, had not taken into account sectors of priority interest to the developing world, such as agricultural products, including tropical products, textiles and clothing and natural resource-based products.

The sectoral offers that had emerged from the Tokyo summit covered sectors virtually of exclusive interest to the quadrilateral countries and covered less than 0.5 percent of imports of these countries (US, Canada, EC and Japan) from Latin American and Caribbean region.

Without reciprocal trade liberalization by the industrialized countries, the countries from her region would not be in a position to continue the sustained growth of imports which had contributed to growth and employment in the North, Ms Sola Saurel added.

Asaf Ghafoor of Pakistan, speaking for the Asian countries, reiterated the need for transparency in the negotiations. For some of the agricultural products of export interest to developing countries, he said, the reduction and reform commitments ranged from none to very marginal. Cotton and rice may not even be included in the reduction commitment on internal support in at least two of the very important trading countries.

(Under the Blair House agreement, the internal support is to be calculated on sectors as a whole, and not on individual products, and then subject to reduction commitments).

The Asian group, Ghafoor said, was also concerned about textiles. The Quad accord should be expanded to cover most products of export interest to the developing world.

Patrick Laurent of Belgium, speaking for the EC, said that the Quad accord sought to create a central core which was to be multilateralised through a snowball effect. The criticism of the accord from the developing countries, he said, was not justified.

He agreed on the need for carrying out the mandated evaluation of the outcome before concluding the Round and viewed as 'interesting' the criteria suggested in the UNCTAD secretariat note.

He urged countries that had not yet done so to submit their offers on market access in services, even if they are minimalist, in order to join the negotiations and the multilateral trade organization.

(A participant to join the proposed MTO would have to sign all the agreements, and to sign the services accord, any participant has to attach a schedule of initial services commitments).

Syed Jamaluddin of Bangladesh, speaking for the LDCs, said that the concerns of these countries had not been reflected in a consistent and fair manner in the various instruments, and fell short of the political commitments given in Punta del Este.

Juan Archibaldo Lanus of Argentina said that not a single proposal on market access that came out of the Tokyo summit had met the needs of the developing countries. Rather they served the interests of the high-technology exporters of the industrialized world.

If the Uruguay Round is to result in a balanced package it should contain provisions equal for all countries, taking due account of the real and potential interests of all, Lanus said.

Such a balanced package, he added, had to produce two major changes: changes in national trade policies and a readjustment of production in national economies to adapt to the integrated world economy. This required clear rules of the game for all countries and competition based on fair play and rules and not on subsidies.

Ruishu Lu of China said the market access agreement out of Tokyo marked a step forward, but the corresponding tariff reductions in that package should be extended to agricultural and tropical products, electronics, textiles and clothing. There had been progress, but not balance, in the negotiations on trade in services. However, the developed countries had not responded favourably to repeated requests from developing countries on movement of broader categories of personnel for delivery of services. Only if the interests of the world as a whole was taken into account and a positive and practical attitude adopted by the major trading partners, would it be possible to reach a balanced, more open and effective package of trade agreements, Lu added.

Ecuador's Alfredo Pinoarente echoed the concerns of other developing country speakers over the rising protectionist trend in some quarters, particularly in the agriculture sector, and cited the case of the EC's treatment of banana imports as an example of lack of adherence to the multilaterally agreed rules.

Richard A. Pierce of Jamaica noted that the market access package, including on agricultural, tropical and natural resource-based products, would be the critical yardstick by which developing countries would measure the benefits from the Round. He also called for additional resources and assistance for net food importing countries that would encounter difficulties in agriculture. On the banana question, he appealed to the EC to honour its contractual commitments with the ACP countries.

Australia's John Corwall thought that the prospects for the successful conclusion of the Round had brightened and there had been a genuine revival of the negotiations. He hoped that the Board, at its next session (in March 1994) would be reviewing the results of the Round.