Bleary-eyed delegates at the WTO conference agreed yesterday to start a new round of much-anticipated talks to free up global commerce after the lone holdout -- India -- said it would not object.
After six days of hard bargaining, trade officials and diplomats said the ministers had a deal many hope will send a shot of confidence into the flagging global economy -- and restore credibility to an organization traumatized by its failure in Seattle two years ago.
"We are on the verge of signing off," said Sergio Marchi, Canada's ambassador to the WTO, by mobile phone as applause broke out in the closed chamber where ministers were meeting. "We are anticipating the announcement any minute."
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The declaration, which was to be formally adopted late yesterday at a plenary session, sets out topics to be covered in a round of back-and-forth negotiations that lasts years. The last one took more than seven years, ending in 1994.
The WTO tried to open a new round covering issues from agricultural products to services in Seattle, but differences between developing and rich nations led to failure to reach consensus.
Marchi said India had agreed not to object to adoption of the main declaration setting out an agenda for a new round of talks. Its strong objections would be noted in a separate statement, he said.
India would join the other 141 WTO members in adopting separate declarations on ensuring poor countries can get access to expensive Western drugs, he said, and another intended to speed up and improve the implementation of past trade agreements, which many developing countries say they have yet to benefit from.
WTO Deputy Director-General Paul-Henri Ravier said the ministers would be moving to a public plenary session soon, which is where declarations are formally adopted.
India also wanted rich countries, mainly the US and Canada, to agree to quicker reductions in limits on imports of textiles.
The US, which has already compromised on poor countries' access to patented drugs and by agreeing to a review of anti-dumping rules, says it has conceded everything it can without the approval of the US Congress.
Diplomats said India dropped the demand with the understanding that the issue would be discussed in one of the WTO committees.
Just hours before, the EU accepted a compromise on phasing out farm export subsidies -- an issue that had threatened to sink the talks earlier.
During all-night negotiating, diplomats managed a linguistic finesse on whether new trade talks should aim at "phasing out" farm export subsidies -- as almost all of the WTO's 142 members want.
Only the EU -- most emphatically France -- had called that wording unacceptable. France, the world's second-biggest agricultural exporter after the US, has a militant farm lobby and presidential elections just six months away.
A compromise was found to keep the words "phasing out" in the declaration, but preceded by "without prejudging the outcome of the negotiations," according to the latest draft yesterday morning.
The 15 EU nations agreed to the pact after a break to allow the French to consult with Paris.
In return, other countries were willing to accept EU demands that the new talks should take consideration of some environmental issues, negotiators said.
But diplomats said India initially refused to go along with that and other concessions made to bring the Europeans into the fold.
Developing countries dislike references to environmental protection because they fear such standards could be used as a cover to keep their goods out of the EU.
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