May 16, 1984
WASHINGTON MEETING AGREES ON PRIORITY TO GATT WORK PROGRAMME.
GENEVA, MAY 14 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN)— A Ministerial level meeting of important trading nations of the world, held in Washington DC last week, would appear to have agreed on the need for priority for completing the work programme within the general agreement on tariffs and trade, according to Third World sources here. The meeting had been summoned by the U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. William Brock. It was attended from the Third World, among others, by representatives from Brazil, Egypt, India, Mexico, Philippines, South Korea and Yugoslavia. Among the industrial countries were representatives of New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the EEC Commission, France (current chairman of the EEC), and Sweden, besides the U.S. Besides the Trade Ministers, the IMF managing director, Mr. J. De Larosiere, GATT director-general, Arthur Dunkel, and GATT Council Chairman, Felipe Jaramillo (of Colombia) were also present. There was no agreed statement or conclusions from the meeting, but Brock and some of the visitors held press conferences on Saturday. Within GATT, Japan has proposed a new round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTNS), and the U.S.A. has been supporting this. The U.S. also wants to bring within such an MTN, liberalisation of trade in services, investment and high technology issues. On the eve of the Washington meeting, the "informal group of developing countries" in GATT had tabled a joint position paper where they had asked for implementation of the past commitments undertaken by the industrial countries in previous MTNs and completion of the work programme as a priority step. The honouring of commitments and implementation of measures agreed (and elaborated in the joint paper) "will have to be demonstrated and sustained over a period of time" in order that the extremely adverse international economic environment confronting the Third World "may be mitigated and a minimal degree of fairness in multilateral trade relations achieved", the Third World group had said in its position paper. The main task before the international community, the group said, was "the completion of the work programme laid out by the GATT Contracting Parties" (at the 1982 Ministerial meeting) and the implementation of measures and commitments there. "Unless and until the work programme is fully implemented in this manner any initiative such as a new round of negotiations in GATT would be lacking in credibility and devoid of relevance particularly for the developing countries", the group had said. Third World sources here said that at the Washington meeting several of the Third World participants had made the same points as in their joint position paper for the GATT Council. Even those from the industrial world seeking a new round of MTNS at some point of time in the future, appeared to see the strength of Third World argument, these sources said. Everyone at the meeting, these sources said, were cautious about a new round of MTNs, and agreed on the need to complete the work programme. There was also apparently discussion at the meeting on the need to make progress on a "comprehensive understanding" on the issue of safeguards in GATT. This is one of the unfinished businesses of the Tokyo Round, and was reiterated as a priority in the GATT work programme at the 1982 GATT Ministerial. In the discussions in GATT so far since then, there has been little or no progress on the safeguards issue. The Third World insists upon safeguards actions complying with GATT principles, and thus be non-discriminatory, while the industrial countries generally want to enforce safeguard measures in a "discriminatory" way against imports from the Third World. Another issue on which there was apparently common ground at the Washington meeting was the link between trade and finance, especially in the context of the problems of the Third World and its debtor countries. The need for industrial countries to resist protectionism, and carry out their standstill and rollback commitments, so that Third World countries could export more to the industrial countries and earn more, in order to enable them to carry out their "adjustment" programmes and service their debts, appears to have been underlined strongly the IMF managing director and the Third World participants. There was also concern expressed at the meeting at the size of the U.S. budget deficits and the rising interest rates and their impact on the debt servicing problems of the debtor countries. Some of the issues are due to be aired at the GATT Council meetings here on May 15 and 16.