Lamy to Retire at End Aug, Hopes for Ok to Trade Facilitation in Bali

Negotiations for the WTO’s upcoming Ministerial Conference in Bali have picked up the pace in recent weeks, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy reported on Monday, keeping hopes alive for potentially achieving a successful outcome in December. However, many members have warned, much more work remains if the WTO wishes to harvest an ambitious set of Doha Round deliverables in time for this winter’s high-level gathering.

September will also see the entry of a new Director-General, former Brazilian Ambassador Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo, after Lamy steps down from his post on 31 August. Whether a new global trade chief will have enough time to affect the pace of the Bali process, however, remains to be seen.

Members’ interventions broadly echoed the idea that this summer’s efforts have been “just enough” to keep the Bali preparations moving forward, a sentiment that delegates speaking to Bridges in recent weeks confirmed.

Trade facilitation: need for more political engagement

The anticipated centerpiece of the planned Bali package would be an agreement on trade facilitation, which would, among other things, ease customs procedures and reduce time at border crossings.

Negotiations on this front, however, have repeatedly hit snags in recent months, particularly over disagreements regarding the level of flexibility, technical assistance, and capacity building that will be accorded to developing and least-developed country (LDC) members for implementing the proposed agreement.

Members had hoped to remove half of the remaining square brackets in the draft text - which had numbered over 500 in June - by July’s TNC. However, sources report that only a fraction of these have been eliminated. “We have not even come close to achieving this [50 percent] target,” EU Ambassador to the WTO Angelos Pangratis commented on Monday.

The next meeting of the negotiating group will be the week of 7 October.

Agriculture: no consensus

In a separate meeting last week, farm talks chair John Adank, the New Zealand ambassador, poured cold water on hopes that members might have reached agreement on agricultural trade issues that could be part of the “small package” deal for December.