US and EU can't implement their proposed 'development package'

Some key elements of the "development package" that has been floated at the Hong Kong Ministerial cannot be taken at face value because neither the EU nor the US can guarantee that they can implement what they have promised, according to a US fair-trade advocate and a European parliamentarian.v Ms. Lori Wallach of US-based Public Citizen has criticised the US offer. She said that the US Trade Representative (USTR) cannot deliver on zero tariff-quota for least developed countries' goods without Congressional approval, and Congress opposes any such move.

"Neither the USTR nor even the US President has authority to deliver such tariff cuts regarding any import sensitive agriculture goods," said Wallach.

The USTR lost his tariff proclamation authority (a right to declare certain tariff cuts without Congressional approval that had been in place since 1974) for a list of 500-plus such items in the 2002 Fast Track bill. Now, delivering tariff cuts on these items requires a vote of Congress, she explained.

According to Wallach, key members of the US Congress have said explicitly that they oppose the "zero tariff" or 'everything but arms' proposal.

She said that the USTR cannot deliver on 'aid for trade' promises made on 14 December which, according to the USTR's own briefing papers, are "subject to the President's budget request being approved" and developing countries agreeing to liberalize their trade.

"The claim that the US will double its aid for trade funding is 'subject to the President's budget request being approved'. Yet, the US Congress is in a deep budget crisis and the likelihood that this will be approved is uncertain".

The US has already announced this same pledge once this year - to move funding levels to $2.7 billion by 2010. This apparent recycling of pledges seems to apply to the European Union too. Dr. Caroline Lucas, a member of the European Parliament Trade Committee for the Green Party, warned that the EC offer is a massive diversion and a sweetener pill to soften the severe impact of the concessions that are being extracted from developing countries.

She said that it is "incredibly arrogant to think that developing countries will be taken in by that offer".

Dr. Lucas also said that the majority of the commitments, such as duty-free and quota-free products, have already been provided, so there is nothing new. She stressed that "The biggest lie is that the European Commissioner will be able to conjure up $1 billion because the EU budget is already under major attack".

She added that the EU cannot even guarantee the pledged "paltry sum of