Date: 23/10/2009
Source: World Trade Organisation
Title: WTO: Lamy: Speech by the World Trade Organisation DG to the Trade Negotiations Committee, Geneva

Thank you all for coming to this meeting.

As I foreshadowed at Tuesday's General Council, and in the fax I sent out to
delegations convening this meeting, I think it is useful for us today to
review what has happened in this week in light of renewed activity in Geneva
following the work programme we adopted a month ago. I also think it useful
that we discuss the next steps in our work for November, so that the week of
negotiations benefiting from the presence of Senior Officials - 23-27
November, can register a qualitative change in the negotiating dynamics and
progress on substance.

As I indicated in my statement to the General Council which was circulated
to delegations in document JOB(09)/143, in addition to Chairs' consultations
and small group meetings that have been taking place during this week, I
also held consultations on the key issues of agriculture, NAMA and Services
together with the respective chairs, in variable geometry, with a view to
providing Members with avenues for engagement. In addition, I held a Green
Room meeting yesterday afternoon and I will be reporting to you shortly on
these consultations.

Let me now briefly review each area of the negotiations in turn, starting
with the areas I held consultations on this past Wednesday.

First, Agriculture. As has become clear during the course of this week, work
in agriculture is proceeding smoothly and with the full of support of
Members on a two-track approach. One track, template work, is advancing with
contributions from many Members. Step 1 of this template work concerns the
identification of base data and appropriate tables; this Step is expected to
conclude soon with work to start in November on Step 2, namely the
preparation of the templates to be used for scheduling commitments.

The other track of work in agriculture is the Chair's informal consultations
on the bracketed and otherwise annotated issues in the draft modalities and
associated documentation. There have been discussions on domestic support
and market access issues, including useful work on sensitive products,
tariff cap, TRQ expansion and tariff simplification. In November these
consultations will broach the S&D issues in the modalities - SSM, special
products, tropical products, preference erosion - with then the opportunity
in December to return to some of the matters.

My sense from consultations which have taken place this week is that there
is a collective endeavour to not lowering the current level of ambition in
agriculture.

In sum, the work in agriculture is re-engaged, has the support of Members
and is moving forward. I strongly encourage you to continue in this vein,
knowing that all issues need to be resolved to conclude these negotiations.

Turning now to NAMA, my consultations this week have focussed on how to move
forward the NTB negotiation. You will recall that during the year, the
Negotiating Group has been discussing the various NTB textual proposals
through a process of questions and answers. This exchange has contributed to
a better understanding and clarification of the different proposals.
However, there still remains a lot of work to be done. This is what has
emerged from the consultations I held. There are proposals that are more
mature than others, there are texts which relate to the same sector and
where marrying them might be necessary, and finally there are still
proposals that remain to be developed into legal texts.

Concerning next steps, there is a NAMA week beginning on 2 November, during
which some NTB proposals will be discussed in an open-ended meeting.
Following this meeting, the Chair intends to hold consultations in different
formats on the various proposals with a view to making progress on them. So,
as mentioned earlier, much technical work remains to be done on this complex
area of the NAMA negotiation and negotiators now have to work on developing
language.

On Services, the purpose of my consultations was to clarify the way ahead
and how best to proceed with these negotiations at this stage. The focus was
mainly on the market access pillar but also briefly touched upon the
rule-making side as well as the implementation of LDC modalities.

It was stressed that the services negotiations cannot be separated from the
rest of the DDA and that as we progress on Agriculture and NAMA, we need to
have commensurate clarity on services. There was also the general sense that
while some time had passed since the Signalling Conference of July 2008, and
while recognizing that those signals were conditional, there were no
intentions of back-tracking. While it was recognized that more clarity
should be pursued by bilateral and plurilateral meetings, it was also
understood that whatever comes out of such efforts, should not be labelled
as "final offers".

On the rule-making part, there was a general feeling that work should be
intensified on domestic regulation, and that senior officials should pay
more attention to the rule-making agenda within services, focusing on text
based negotiations. The week of 9 November has been designated as a
"services week" to pursue desired levels of comfort on all areas of the
services negotiations including the implementation of LDC modalities, which
have reached a stage of preparation allowing involvement of a larger number
of Members.

Let me also take the opportunity if this meeting to briefly detail work in
other negotiating areas which has taken place over the last weeks.

In the Rules area, work has proceeded in accordance with the Group's work
programme. The Group held a two-week cluster from 16-25 September, and
another cluster is scheduled for next week. On anti-dumping and subsidies,
the Group continues to review the Chair's text of December 2008, including
bracketed, un-bracketed and unaddressed issues, a process which should be
completed early next year. On fisheries subsidies, the Group expects to
complete discussion of the Roadmap, and to begin consideration of new
proposals as requested by various delegations, by December. The group has a
full rules cluster next week where delegations will have a further
opportunity to engage. On regional trade agreements (RTAs), the Chair is
consulting informally with Members on how to advance in various questions
relating both to the transparency of RTAs and systemic issues.

Concerning the negotiations on the register of GIs for wine and spirits, the
Chair held consultations with a small group of delegations on 18 September
during the first SOM week when he proposed a work programme for the coming
months. With regard to methodology, he indicated that his aim would be to
move from exchanges on the different positions currently on the table,
towards a focused substantive discussion based on a list of four questions
suggested by himself, which would in turn evolve into some "Chair's papers".

An open-ended informal meeting was held on 2 October for transparency
purposes and also to consult with delegations on how to organize the work in
October and November. He indicated his intention to present a short handover
report, updating the technical areas already addressed in his predecessor's
report (TN/IP/18 of June 2008) with some indications as to moving towards
solutions. At that informal meeting the Chair indicated that he would hold a
formal meeting this afternoon, to continue on 28 October afternoon, in order
to undertake substantive discussion on the Chair's list of four questions.
Another formal session is scheduled for 25 November 2009.

On Trade and Environment, the CTESS held a Workshop on Environmental Goods
and Services at the end of September with the participation of experts from
governments, the private sector and other international organizations. The
workshop provided an opportunity for in‑depth examination of the different
environmental goods sectors, with a particular focus on relevant goods and
technologies, their environmental benefits, and the market drivers and trade
barriers faced in these sectors. The workshop also addressed some
development-related aspects of the mandate, including the issue of
technology transfer.

These discussions should provide a useful basis for delegations to engage in
the next phase under the Paragraph 31(iii) work programme, in which Members
have been invited by the Chair to identify environmental goods of interest.
Consultations on this issue, as well as on other parts of the negotiating
mandate will be held in the lead-up to the next CTESS meeting scheduled in
November.

In the area of Trade Facilitation, the new agreement is taking shape. In
line with the work programme, the Negotiating Group has successfully
completed the first part of its task of producing a consolidated negotiating
text. This text covers GATT Articles V (transit) and X (transparency), and
work has started on the task of consolidating the text on Special and
Differential Treatment. At Group's next meeting in November, the intention
is to consolidate the negotiating text on GATT Article VIII (fees and
formalities), on customs cooperation and on cross-cutting issues in the new
Agreement, and to complete the job of producing consolidated negotiating
text on Special and Differential treatment.

All Members have contributed constructively to this exercise. The Chair has
expressed confidence that the Group will succeed in meeting its target of
producing a draft consolidated negotiating text on Trade Facilitation after
its next meeting on the week of 9 November.

The next and final stage will involve negotiations to narrow down the
differences in positions that are currently reflected in the text so as to
arrive at a consensus agreement.

On the negotiations on Special and Differential Treatment, text-based
discussions on the Monitoring Mechanism have been continuing on the basis of
the Chairs non paper. I am pleased to hear that Members have been able to
make some progress and further fine tuned some of the elements contained
therein. As a result, the Chairman is in the process of revising his non
paper, which will form the basis for continued discussions on the Monitoring
Mechanism. This work will continue in the small group format, with open
ended meetings being held as and when necessary, to brief the wider
Membership of any developments as well as to give them an opportunity to
feed into the process.

Let me also mention the DSU negotiations, although they are not part of the
Single Undertaking. In the week of 12 October, the Chairman of the DSB
Special Sessions held a series of consultations to discuss selected issues
covered in the Chairman's text of July 2008, which is the basis for the
current work. These consultations covered proposals relating to
transparency, amicus curiae briefs, remand, and flexibility and
Member-control. This was followed by an informal open-ended meeting of the
Special Session to report on the consultations to the entire Membership. A
further series of consultations is scheduled for the week of 9 November.
These consultations will address sequencing, post-retaliation, special and
differential treatment, including compliance-related aspects, and
timeframes. With these consultations, all the proposals covered in the
Chairman's text will have been discussed this year. The Chairman's intention
remains to work towards revised text as soon as possible.

Let me now briefly report to you on the Green Room meeting I held yesterday
afternoon. In essence, the meeting focused on taking stock of the various
activities and meetings that had taken place this past week, including my
consultations, and on the next steps in the process leading to the third
week of November where Senior Officials will come to Geneva again. The
meeting also heard reports from a number of delegations regarding the
bilateral and plurilateral processes they had been involved in.

My general impression of the past week has seen useful engagement in focused
and constructive discussions. There has been no backsliding on the level of
ambition. But at the same time, we have not yet seen tangible progress in
the negotiations and, overall, I would say that the current speed with which
we are advancing is too slow to arrive at modalities latest by early next
year as we need to do to be in a position to wrap this Round next year. This
is the reality.

The key now is not process, but rather what happens in the negotiations.
Specifically, we now need to engage in text based negotiations to bridge
gaps, particularly on Agriculture and NAMA which still remain key to these
negotiations, but also on services and on the rest of the topics on our
agenda. This is the only way these negotiations can bear fruit.

I will, as usual, continue working closely with the Negotiating Group Chairs
and the General Council Chairman to help you getting to grips with the
substantive issues which remain open. I will also continue to consult
regularly with you, in various configurations to prepare the next SOM
meeting in November. The focus remains, as it should be, on the multilateral
process, which will continue in all areas of the negotiations in the spirit
with which we have worked up to now - a step-by-step and bottom-up approach
with full respect for inclusiveness and transparency.

The November SOMs week needs to be carefully prepared so that it results in
progress which the Ministerial Meeting could take stock of. It has to be a
negotiating session, not a discussion session, and we have to prepare for it
collectively!

This concludes my report today. For transparency purposes I suggest that
Members who have taken the initiative of holding bilateral and plurilateral
discussions during this week also report on their activities.