Archive - 2006 - Article

The Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access) negotiating committees, NZ Ambassador Crawford Falconer and Canada

WTO members met this morning after the release of the draft possible modalities prepared by Ambassador Crawford Falconer of New Zealand, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture (Special Session) the previous day.

The NAMA-11 group of developing countries has strongly criticised the paper relating to modalities for non-agricultural market access(NAMA) for its unhelpful structure, for omitting the views of members or not reflecting their views accurately in some areas, and for creating confusion as to whether the textual language provided on specific issues was supposed to enjoy agreement or were merely put forward by the Chair under his own responsibility.

A document listing issues to be tackled at the WTO 'Mini-Ministerial' starting on 30 June, and the sequence in which the discussion will take place, was discussed in a Green Room meeting of about 30 Ambassadors with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy on Tuesday 27 June morning.

Over 70 European Civil Society Organisations from 21 countries [1] have today demanded a halt to the Doha round of the WTO talks. Tomorrow, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and the European foreign ministers will meet in Geneva for a WTO Mini-Ministerial, which will attempt to strike a last minute deal to rescue the stalled negotiations.

Leading countries in the troubled

In a letter sent today to Trade Ministers at the WTO, more than 100 civil society groups from around the world denounced the legitimacy of an exclusive Ministerial meeting in Geneva this week, and urged trade ministers to develop a new approach to the multilateral trading system. The signatories represented civil society groups from more than 30 countries, including the big WTO players - US, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia and India - as well as smaller countries like, Senegal, Uganda, Nigeria and Bolivia.

The two papers on draft possible modalities for agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) for the WTO negotiations were issued on Thursday (22 June) at lunch-time, a day after they were expected to be sent to Members. A meeting on Friday morning will allow members to give their comments on the agriculture paper.

The paper on draft modalities for non-agriculture market access (NAMA) that will serve as the basis for WTO negotiations in the next ten days contains little in the form of agreed text, and more in terms of comments on the areas of present disagreement among the WTO members.

The stage is set for a week or more of intense negotiations at the WTO as Ministers of some 40 to 50 countries are expected to arrive in Geneva in an effort to boost the flagging Doha negotiations.