Apr 13, 1985

THIRD WORLD MINISTERS TO MEET ON GSTP.

GENEVA, APRIL 11 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN)— Trade Ministers of Third World countries, participating in negotiation to establish Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) among themselves, are to meet in New Delhi in the first week of July.-

According to Group 77 sources here, India which has offered to host the meeting is now in the process of sending out invitations.-

While the meeting is aimed at discussing GSTP issues and give political push to the negotiations, Trade Ministers are also expected to use the opportunity to discuss other trade matters of interest to them, including efforts of Industrial countries to push for a new round of multilateral trade negotiations in GATT, and include "trade in services" within GATT.-

Members of the Group of 77 have agreed to expand their mutual trade by negotiating and establishing a Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) among themselves, as part of their plans for further mutual economic cooperation.-

Foreign Ministers of the Group of 77 issued a joint declaration in October 1982 for the launching and establishment of the GSTP to be confined to members of the group.-

Following that, so far some 70 country-members of the Group, individually or through their subregional and regional economic groupings, have notified their intention to participate in such negotiations.-

Subsequent to the Foreign Ministers declaration, and after almost two years of preparatory expert meetings, the group of 77 has now agreed on a mechanism for bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral negotiations for establishing the GSTP.-

According to this, participants were to send to the UNCTAD secretariat by March 1985, a list of their export products for which they would seek trade concessions and/of direct trade measures in the markets of other participants.-

This was to be a tentative and exploratory list, intended to provide a first indication to other participants of the kinds of products for which concessions may sought.-

In the light of such tentative indications, the UNCTAD secretariat is to prepare and distribute, specially designed computer print-outs, showing the trade among participants in the products concerned and identifying the major import markets among then, together with any relevant information on market trends and prospects and on trade regimes.-

On the basis of this, in the second step, each participant is to give, by June 30, l985, an indication of the negotiating approach desired, and sends to the UNCTAD secretariat an actual list of those of their export products for which they wish to seek trade concessions (tariff, non-tariff, and para-tariff), and/or direct trade measures, including long-term contracts, the extent of concessions requested and the participants to whom the requests are addressed.-

On the basis of these lists, the UNCTAD secretariat is to forward the request lists to the participants concerned.-

In a third step, and on the basis of these indications and lists, the Negotiating Committee on GSTP (comprising all countries who have notified their intention to participate) is to draw up by September 30, 1985 a negotiating plan.-

In the fourth step, participants will then exchange their preliminary reactions and offers in relation to the request lists received, so as to enable rounds of bilateral/plurilateral negotiations among interested participants to take place as of December l, 1985.-Though the G-77 Foreign Ministers decided to launch the negotiations in 1982, progress has been very slow, almost at a snail's pace.-This has been partly because of problems of the issue of support to such negotiations, and provision of Conference and other facilities and technical assistance, by the UNCTAD secretariat.-

Some of these issues have only recently been solved, through a UNDP/UNCTAD/Group of 77 technical assistance project.-

The submission of preliminary tentative lists has also been so far skimpy, and Group of 77 sources say that this partly due to the uncertainties so far about the financing of the entire exercise.-But part of the reason is also attributed to the lack of political push so far from the Trade Ministries of the countries concerned.-

The New Delhi meeting is primarily intended to provide this political push, and start a process for enhancing mutual trade and thus production and employment in the Third World.-

While the agenda of the meeting is for discussing GSTP issues, meeting of Trade Ministers of the Third World from such a large number of countries would also enable them to exchange views on other trade matters of common interest.-

Growing protectionist and discriminatory barriers to Third World exports in the north, and the bilateral and plurilateral pressures the Third World to agree on the launch of new GATT round of trade negotiations, including on trade in services (being pushed by the U.S.A. and Japan), are likely to figure in the New Delhi consultations.-