Revised Hong Kong draft retains services text and Annex

A revised draft of the text for the WTO's Hong Kong Ministerial Conference was issued on the evening of Thursday, 1 December and was the main subject of discussion at the formal General Council meeting on Friday, 2 December. The document is JOB(05)/298/Rev. 1 dated 1 December.

The new draft, presented by the Chairman of the General Council, Ambassador Amina Mohamed of Kenya and Director-General Pascal Lamy, contains some additions in the main text (particularly new language on agriculture and non-agricultural market access) and a few revisions in various areas.

However, while it attempts to capture the main elements of the state of play of agriculture and NAMA in general terms, the revised draft does not alter the first draft, issued on 26 November, in any fundamental manner.

In particular, the new draft contains identical treatment (as the first draft) on services, with the three paragraphs (paras 19-21) in the main text and the controversial Annex C remaining the same. This is despite concerns and objections raised by many developing countries that the services Annex contains many elements that are not agreed upon and with which many members have disagreement with.

Several developing country delegations are preparing to raise a new round of objections to the treatment of services in the text, according to diplomatic sources. They may ask that the text properly clarify that Annex C was prepared by the Chair of the services negotiations, Ambassador Fernando de Mateo of Mexico, on his own responsibility and has not been agreed on by members. By asking for this, the delegations are asking for the possibility of the Annex C text to be re-opened for negotiation in Hong Kong or after.

The addition of the new agriculture and NAMA text in the main body of the document came as a result of intense "Green Room" meetings over several days after the first draft was issued. The new language on cotton is also the result of a passionate plea made by African cotton-producing countries (by a representative in the Green Room) that there must be an effective result in Hong Kong on cotton, otherwise the Ministers of affected countries would find it difficult or impossible to agree to any overall deal.

A cover page to the revised draft states that it "incorporates amendments made in light of the views expressed by Members in our consultations and in the recent Heads of Delegation and TNC meetings. As stated by the Director-General at the TNC, the revision has been undertaken in full respect of the bottom-up approach to which we are all committed."

The cover page adds: "It should be emphasized that this text remains a draft. It does not purport to represent agreement overall, and it is without prejudice to any delegation's position on any issue. It draws on and incorporates much work done by the Chairs of the negotiating bodies and other WTO bodies. Their consultations have in many cases produced inputs for the present draft which are either fully agreed by Members or reflect a high level of convergence. In other areas, the text reflects a lower level of convergence.