10:39 AM Jul 18, 1996

RENEWED WTO TALKS ON NEW ISSUES IN SEPTEMBER

Geneva 18 July (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The WTO Director-General, Renato Ruggiero, plans to resume his informal consultation process at level of heads of delegations on the 'new issues' for the WTO's Singapore meeting from 16 September.

A report by Ruggiero to the General Council (which is continuing its meeting Thursday afternoon, and is due to hear reports from the various WTO bodies before hearing views and comments of members) also suggested that his focus in the resumed consultations would be on government procurement, investment, WTO rules, Competition and on Labour Standards.

Ruggiero said that there had been 25 "non-papers" covering 13 subjects so far, and obliquely suggested there should be no more nonpapers.

All the issues that he plans to pursue are those of interest to the Northern countries. Even the one on

The government procurement issue has been proposed by the US, and it covers the issue of corruption raised by it. The investment was originally aired by the European Union, but is now in the form of a non-paper by Canada for a study group.

The one on WTO rules, by Hong Kong, 'WTO rules in a globalizing economy', originally suggested to cover anti-dumping and rules of origin, is now being sought to be expanded by the majors to be a catchall item for a work programme on all the new issues.

On Competition, the EU and Japan have put forward recently two 'non-papers' while the Labour Standards issue has been proposed by the United States and Norway.

Though none of the subjects has met with a consensus, Ruggiero is trying to focus the future consultations on them, and hopes to get a consensus behind them for Singapore meeting.

At the last HOD meeting, held a fortnight ago, Ruggiero and Canada tried to suggest that there was a consensus to take up the investment question for study, and that only a balanced terms of reference remained to be agreed.

However, this was denied by India, Egypt, Tanzania, Pakistan and the ASEAN, who said their questions on the Canadian non-paper and its ramifications remained unanswered.

In his report Thursday to the General Council, Ruggiero said his HOD process has been focused on what might constitute a work programme for the WTO, through a more specific examination of issues raised by several delegations in non-papers, and that discussions on several of them had helped clarify the issues.

The nonpapers included one on implementation by the ASEAN; two on built-in agenda by ASEAN and Australia; two by Korea on regionalism; three by the US and one by Korea on Government procurement; one on investment by Canada; WTO rules in a globalizing economy by Hong Kong; two on competition policy by EU and Japan (introduced at the last HOD but not yet discussed); one on rules of origin by EU; two on labour standards by the US and Norway; proposal for a 1998 World Trade Summit by Ecuador; two on textiles and clothing, by the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau and by group of textile exporting countries; two by Australia and Canada for tariff liberalization; and one on services by Australia.

Some of the issues raised in the non-papers belonged more appropriately to the regular WTO bodies -- review of implementation of the Uruguay round accords, built-in-agenda, regionalism, rules of origin and textiles and clothing.

Ruggiero noted the 7 November deadline set by the General Council for finalizing official reports on implementation, and suggested same deadline for drafting any decisions, recommendations and communiques.

He also planned to pursue from latter part of September consultations on a final outcome for Singapore, and on the agenda and outstanding issues. He hoped after consultations to come up by early October with an outline of a draft declaration by Ministers.

The 16 September HOD meet would enable delegations to take stock of the situation and revert to the outstanding specific issues of the HOD process, he suggested.