7:11 AM Jul 12, 1995

CUBA RECEIVES SUPPORT AGAINST US MOVES

Geneva 12 July (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- Cuba received strong support at the General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Tuesday when it raised, and warned against, moves in the US Congress for expanding the scope of the US embargo on economic relations with Cuba.

The Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jesse Helms, has introduced a bill there to extend the 35-year old US embargo to sugar, molasses and syrup imports from other nations that import sugar and these other products from Cuba.

The bill if enacted, would also prohibit grant of US entry visas to people who have invested in Cuba, where properties (mostly belonging to those in the Batista dictatorship and others allied) that were nationalized after the Cuban revolution are now being privatized and sold off.

The Cuban complaint against the moves, voiced in the Council under any other business, by Cuban trade official M. Merciota, received support from Colombia, Mexico and the European Union.

The Cuban said that the proposed measures about secondary bans on imports of sugar, molasses and syrup, would violate the rules of the WTO and GATT 1994, while the planned visa restrictions would similarly violate the 'movement of natural persons' rules of the WTO.

If they become law, Cuba would bring the matter up before the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism, the delegate warned.

The EU which has already taken up this issue bilaterally with Washington, and cautioned against such extra-territorial moves violative of the WTO, said that it too had reservations about the WTO validity of the US legislative moves and expressed the hope that the bill would not become law.

In other statements, Colombia on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean group, sought quick disposal of the long-pending accession negotiations of Ecuador and wanted this to be done before the traditional summer recess at the WTO (from August till second week of September).

The EU's position was said to be holding up the accession protocol, and the EU explained that this was related to the procedural problems for it to get the approval of the European Parliament.

Ecuador, an observer, said that the 'banana' dispute (Ecudor is one of the Latin Americans challenging the EU banana regime, and did not accept the EU's national quota allocations) was not involved.

In other actions, the WTO Council was advised of the accession requests from the Indian ocean island of Seychelles and the Pacific ocean island of Vanautu.

China was also accepted as a WTO observer. China is an observer at the GATT 1947. It is now negotiating to get back to the GATT, from where it withdrew soon after the revolution in the mainland, and is tangled up in the negotiations for accession to the WTO, where it is facing major difficulties over the US demands.

Earlier, the Council was advised that consultations were still continuing on the issues of 'derestriction' of the WTO documents to the public, and the subject of relationships with NGOs.

No decision was taken, but those pushing for this from the industrial world, wanted a special session of the WTO General Council to endorse any consensus outcome of these consultations.

The WTO General Council is otherwise scheduled to hold its next session on 15 November.

An issue on the Council agenda, which was put off, related to the 'waiver' request from several countries including Pakistan and Sri Lanka for further time to bring their tariff schedules in line with the HS system. The United States has been pushing for very limited waivers, of no more 2-3 months, and the whole question has become involved in haggling over the time, often in consultations without the participation of the countries applying for waiver, one WTO member said.

The Council was also informed about consultations on closer relationships of the WTO with the IMF and the World Bank, and the talks that the WTO head, Renato Ruggiero has had with the heads of the two institutions.

The terms of reference for further consultations, and an agreement, evolved in consultations by Swiss ambassador, William Rossier, were endorsed by the Council.

The consultations cover a range of activities and bodies of the two Bretton Woods Institutions. Apart from the IMF's status in the WTO consultations on balance-of-payments issues of countries in terms of the GATT 1994 and the GATS, consultations on other financial and exchange matters are also to be provided for.

Among questions to be settled are those arising out of the Marrakesh Ministerial decisions on measures concerning negative effects on least developed and net food-importing developing countries as a result of the Uruguay Round.

The IMF is to be granted observer status at the WTO ministerial conferences and the General Council and the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. There were though some reservations from the membership of the WTO on this last. The IMF will also get observer status in the WTO Trade Policy Review Mechanism, the three sectoral councils of the WTO (on goods, services and intellectual property) and their subordinate bodies.

The WTO will be granted observer status at meetings of the IMF executive boards and the board of governors of the IMF and the World Bank, the IMF Interim Committee and the Fund-Bank Development Committee.

The Bretton Woods Institutions and the WTO would also get mutual access to the other's data bases. All these have to be incorporated in an agreement that would have to be approved by the respective bodies.