WTO Seattle Failure Due To Lack of Will

February 10, 2000

"Insufficient political will" and inadequate preparation contributed significantly to the failure of the World Trade Organization ministerial in Seattle last year, a House subcommittee was told. Now the focus should broaden beyond "our excessive focus on the European Union" with a tough approach to the agricultural talks.

Dale Hathaway, executive director, National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy, said, "The first task (now) should be to move ahead with the built-in agenda in a way that will help overcome the difficulties encountered in Seattle." This can be done best by activating the WTO Committee on Agriculture, finding "a new dynamic chairman for that committee" and charging the committee to develop "an agreed-upon approach for carrying out the mandate to continue the agricultural reforms started in the Uruguay Round."

U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told the Subcommittee on Trade of the House Ways and Means Committee that the administration’s agenda now includes opening negotiations on agriculture and services as mandated by the Uruguay Round, implement and enforce existing agreements, promote the full integration of the least developed countries into the trading system, promote institutional reform at the WTO with a focus on stronger transparency and support the accession of new members, particularly China.

However, there is growing awareness that nothing much will be done in the negotiations until well into 2001. A former USTR official points out that with national elections this fall in the United States and with the European Union (EU) having to revise its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to accommodate new member nations from East Europe, no one will make any "bold moves" in negotiations.

He argues that with a new administration in place next year, and, if the EU can reform the CAP and decide how much additional market access is acceptable, there should be movement within the agricultural round.

"There’s a general acknowledgment that it’s important to demonstrate the process is alive and breathing" in the meantime, he says.

REUTERS reports from Wellington that a senior New Zealand official also says talks could be delayed until 2001 due to the U.S. elections. "It is likely that this year the negotiations that get underway will, to some extent, be shadow boxing and setting out people’s positions in agriculture," said Bruce Ross, director general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.