SUMMARY OF DECISIONS
(Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union)
1. The Steering Committee of the
Parliamentary Conference on the WTO met on 3 October 2007 at IPU Headquarters
in Geneva and was attended by 46 persons. The session was co-chaired by Mr. G.
Versnick, representing the IPU, and by Mr. H. Markov and Mr. R. Sturdy (for the
last part of the day), representing the European Parliament.
2. During the morning sitting, the
Committee held a hearing with chief WTO negotiators of the four major trading
powers: Ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney Filho (Brazil), Ambassador Ujal Singh
Bhatia (India), Ambassador Eckart Guth (European Union) and Mr. David Shark,
Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States of America. In their
introductory presentations, the Ambassadors expressed guarded optimism with
regard to the chances of the ongoing negotiations on modalities for agriculture
and on non-agricultural market access to conclude within a reasonable time
frame. They emphasized that the achievement of a balanced result in agriculture
and NAMA talks was a pre-condition for an eventual success of the Doha Round.
3. The Ambassadors responded to a
number of direct questions dealing with such diverse subjects as the prospects
for a prolongation of the Trade Promotion Authority by the US Congress; the
negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements between the European Union and
the ACP countries; the ACP-EU Sugar Protocol; parliamentary presence at WTO
Ministerial Conferences, etc.
4. At the afternoon sitting, the
Committee held a hearing with Ambassador Crawford Falconer (New Zealand), current Chairperson of the Special Session of the WTO Committee on Agriculture. In his
words, an overall agreement is difficult but not impossible. The text of the
Draft Modalities for Agriculture has been well accepted by the delegations.
5. An in-depth exchange of views took
place among the Steering Committee members with regard to the need to provide
continued political support to the negotiations for as long as the negotiators
themselves were hopeful of a successful outcome. As an expression of its
determination to encourage proactive government action in the field of
international trade, the Committee adopted a statement, the text of which may
be found in Annex 2. The statement was subsequently transmitted to the press
corps in Geneva and forwarded to the WTO Secretariat.
6. The Committee considered a revised
draft of the "Guidelines (minimum standards) for relations between
governments and parliaments on international trade issues", prepared by
the Secretariat of the European Parliament on the basis of two comparative
studies, which had been undertaken by the European Parliament and the French
Senate respectively. The revised draft was drawn up in conformity with the
suggestions made by the members at the Committee's fifteenth session in June
2007. The Committee approved the revised draft which would be submitted to the
entire membership of the Conference for adoption at the next plenary session.
7. The Committee also considered a
revised paper concerning the definition of geographical regions for the purpose
of rotation of Steering Committee members from among national parliaments. The
Committee approved the proposed listing of geographical regions according to
which, in the future, one seat would have to be reassigned from the region of
Europe and North America to Latin America and the Caribbean. The Committee also
approved a list of relevant draft amendments to the Rules of the Parliamentary
Conference on WTO, which would now be submitted for endorsement by the entire
Conference at its next plenary session.
8. According to the text approved, the
new set of rules could not be applied retroactively to the national parliaments
serving on the Steering Committee at present and their term would therefore
expire in 2012 only. Moreover, the rotation of Steering Committee members from
among national parliaments would be carried out in such a way that no more than
half of the parliaments representing a given geographical region would be
replaced at any one time, while the principal trade negotiators and major
economies would be always represented. All future changes in the composition of
the Steering Committee would be proposed jointly by the IPU and the European
Parliament as the Conference co-organizers and approved by the Steering
Committee as a whole.
9. Having considered an application for
membership in the Steering Committee by the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie,
the Committee felt that it would need more time to study this question in
detail, bearing in mind its potential implications for the issue of the overall
representation of inter-parliamentary structures and assemblies at the Steering
Committee, and decided to postpone the decision on the application until after
the new composition of the Steering Committee was adopted.
10. Despite a high degree of
uncertainty regarding the conclusion of the negotiations of the Doha Round and
the possible timing of the next WTO Ministerial Conference, the Committee felt
that there was no point in postponing indefinitely the holding of the next
plenary session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO and that the session
should take place in 2008 no matter what. The Steering Committee decided
therefore, that if the WTO was to hold a Ministerial Conference in 2008, the
Annual Session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO should take place in
parallel with this inter-governmental meeting, as was the case in Cancun and Hong Kong. In the eventuality that there was no progress in WTO negotiations and no
Ministerial Conference in 2008, then the Annual Session of the Parliamentary
Conference on the WTO should take place before summer 2008, in Geneva or Brussels. Should the Conference be held in Geneva, at least one session of the Steering
Committee would be held in Brussels.
11. The IPU and the European Parliament
were entrusted with carrying out the necessary consultations as to the possible
dates and venue of the next session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO.
A formal decision concerning the session's agenda, dates and venue would be
taken by the Steering Committee at its next meeting, to be held tentatively in
the first quarter of 2008, at the IPU Headquarters in Geneva or in the EP
premises in Brussels.