NO NEW NEGOTIATIONS WITHOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF PAST COMMITMENTS.

May 9, 1984

NO NEW NEGOTIATIONS WITHOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF PAST COMMITMENTS.

GENEVA, MAY 7 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN). Without a full implementation of past commitments, and the GATT working programme, "a new round of negotiations in GATT would be lacking in credibility and devoid of relevance particularly for the developing countries".

The informal group of developing countries in the general agreement on tariffs and trade have put forward this common position in a joint paper.

The paper, "improvement of world trade relations through the implementation of the work programme of GATT", has been submitted by Uruguay, the current spokesman of the group, and has been circulated to all GATT Contracting Parties (CPs).

It is to be discussed at the meeting of the GATT Council on May 15, 1984.

The formulation of this joint position on the moves for a new round of negotiations in GATT, being pushed by Japan and the U.S.A., comes on the eve of a Ministerial meeting of some industrial and Third World countries, convened by the U.S. Trade Representative, William Brock, to be held at Washington DC from may 10 to 12.

The U.S. wants to push the idea at this meeting.

The idea of such a round was first mooted by the U.S.A. in the preparations leading to the 1982 GATT Ministerial meeting, and to include in such a round so-called north-south trade issues as also trade in services, high technology and investment issues.

A large number of Third World countries, at the GATT Ministerial, came out in opposition to any GATT consideration of services or investment issues, as being beyond GATT competence.

They were also opposed to any north-south round, which they saw as an effort to extract "concessions" from them in return for industrialised countries merely carrying out their existing obligations under GATT.

Since then, Japan has formally put forward, at the GATT Council and in the GATT Consultative Group of 18 (CG-18), the top policy making body, a proposal for a new round of trade negotiations.

In all these forums, most of the Third World countries have spoken out in opposition.

But this is the first time that the informal group of the developing countries in GATT have formulated a formal joint position and presented it.

The GATT informal group, apart from the G77 members who are CPs, also includes Israel, Turkey, and Spain.

Third World CPs to GATT, the paper said, note with growing concern the continued worsening of the international economic environment for themselves and for Third World countries in general.

This adverse situation was characterised by growing trade deficits severe balance-of-payments disequilibria and stagnating social and economic development.

This cannot be overcome, and resumption of adequate rates of social and economic development achieved, without greatly improved access for their exports in the markets of the developed countries.

Such expansion of the exports of the Third World countries would be "an important contribution to recovery in world trade and economic activity".

Previous rounds of trade negotiations, the group underlined, have failed to ensure additional benefits for the Third World countries.

And indeed, since the completion of the latest Tokyo Round negotiations (in 1979), there has been "further intensification of restrictive trade measures" by the industrialised countries against the exports of the Third World countries.

"This has created for the developing countries an untenable situation, which unless immediately addressed, threatens to engulf the entire world economy".

Third World CPs, the paper said, "strongly urge the developed countries to immediately take adequate measures to redress the present imbalance which characterises the situation of developing countries".

The need for emergency actions has been "further underscored by the increasingly serious financial situation of the developing countries, and the unanimous realisation that eventual solutions in the financial field will not be adequate unless reinforced by sustained expansion of their export earnings".

In calling for implementation of past commitments, the group's paper has put forward some specific measures.

GATT contracting parties, it said, should individually:

-- Implement promptly their undertaking to lift any measures inconsistent with GATT, or not based on specific GATT disciplines, which restrict or have such an effect on exports of the Third World countries to their markets, they should also refrain from introducing new ones.

-- Abstain from applying "safeguard" (protectionist restrictive) measures, inconsistent with article XIX of GATT, against imports from developing countries.

(Article XIX requires such measures to be applied in a non-discriminatory way, and only in the event of "unforeseen developments", through imports in such increased quantities and under such conditions, causing "serious injury or threat thereof" to domestic producers).-- Abstain from invoking the provisions of the "subsidies code" over subsidised exports of developing countries to "third country markets".

-- Exercise utmost restraint in counter-vailing and anti-dumping procedures against imports from the Third World countries. Executive powers should be fully used to dismiss, suspend or revoke such actions, or refrain from initiating new procedures.

In the area of multilateral actions, the joint paper called upon the industrialised countries:

-- To take immediate action to liberalise their import regimes for textiles and clothing, bearing in mind that the Multifibre Arrangement (now regulating this trade vis-à-vis the Third World) is a major derogation from GATT rules.

A time frame should be worked out to return this trade to GATT disciplines, and in the interim new protectionist measures recently introduced (a reference to U.S. actions) should be promptly rolled-back

-- Engage in a serious effort, on a priority basis, to implement all other aspects of the current GATT work programme of particular interest to the trade of the developing countries.

With the implementation of the agree a start should be made commitments in paras six and seven of the GATT Ministerial declaration (on standstill and rollback), and particularly immediate measures to eliminate quantitative restrictions and other non-tariff measures as well as barriers to the exports of agricultural and tropical-products from the Third World.

-- Give special attention to the particular situation and problems of the least developed countries, and ensure their getting special treatment in the context of any general and specific measures taken to favour the Third World.

The adoption of these measures, the joint paper of the group said, would amount to "no more than fulfilling previously accepted commitments".

They should be undertaken by the industrialised countries in the spirit of the faithful implementation of part IV of the general agreement "in keeping with the principle of differential and more favourable treatment for developing countries".

With the same spirit and motivations the industrialised CPs "should extend and improve their GSP schemes on the basis of the principles of non-discrimination and non-reciprocity and should refrain from graduating products out of their GSP schemes".

"The developing Contracting Parties to GATT believe that the honouring of the commitments and implementation of the measures as elaborated above will have to be demonstrated and sustained over a period of time in order that the extremely adverse international economic environment confronting them may be mitigated and a minimal degree of fairness in multilateral trading relations be achieved".

In view of the "negative impact of inaction in this field for the GATT", the Third World group said "it is the responsibility of the contracting parties to act in a manner that ensures the fulfilment of the commitments entered into by their Ministers".

"The main task now before the international trading community is the completion of the work programme laid out by the GATT Contracting Parties at the Ministerial level in 1982.

In this context, urgent and undivided attention must be given to the implementation of measures and commitments contained therein which would benefit the trade of the developing Contracting Parties.

"Unless and until the work programme is fully implemented in this manner any initiative such as a new round of negotiations in GATT would belacking in credibility and devoid of relevance particularly for developing countries", the joint paper concluded.