Archive - 2003 - Article

'This Business Advisory Body process could worsen rather than improve the WTO's endemic problems with secrecy, internally or with civil society,' said Navarro.

Progress on market access has been highlighted as one of the principal negotiating objectives of the United States, along with agricultural reform.

Many developing countries at the WGTI meeting also said they could not agree with the proposition that the clarification process in the WGTI is complete.

The US and the Cairns Group consider its proposed tariff reductions too shallow while the European Union and Japan see them as to deep.

The Bush Administration has touted the action as the salvation of starving people and a defense of U.S. farmers.

The TRIPS Council meeting on June 4-6, in its last formal session before the Cancun Ministerial Conference in September, did not make progress towards agreement on a solution for the Paragraph 6 problem.

Under the service negotiations, India has already made its offer to 62 countries, of which 25 have responded including the United States and European Union, the sources said.

Chowdhury said: 'We demand easymovement of manpower, unrestricted market access, flexibility of rules of negotiation and exemption of LDCs from anti-dumping.''

The Cancun Ministerial meeting is mandated to take a decision by explicit consensus on the modalities of negotiations for a WTO agreement on Trade and Competition Policy.

An extremely problematic feature of this process is that the Chair states,'Clearly, the informal HODs will need to be complemented by consultations by both of us in a variety of smaller configuration to address specific issues and problems.