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TWN
Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Nov21/02) Geneva, 8 Nov (D. Ravi Kanth) – The United States on 5 November apparently adopted a “stonewalling” approach over the best endeavour interim arrangement proposed by the least-developed countries (LDCs) to be agreed at the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12) set to begin in Geneva on 30 November, said people familiar with the development. The WTO’s General Council (GC) chair, Ambassador Dacio Castillo from Honduras, held an informal open-ended meeting on 5 November to discuss issues concerning the 1998 work program on e-commerce, especially the controversial issue of extending the moratorium on levying customs duties on electronic transmissions, and the LDCs’ much-moderated proposal on a best endeavour interim decision. While many countries led by Switzerland sought the extension of the moratorium for another two years, Sri Lanka, South Africa, India, and several other developing countries raised sharp concerns about the extension of the moratorium on account of the loss of fiscal revenues in developing countries due to the moratorium, said people familiar with the development. As regards the LDCs’ much-moderated proposal that toned down their earlier demands tabled last year, the LDC group proposed an interim decision that seeks to defend the necessity of establishing a smooth transition mechanism in the WTO to address the immediate challenges of the graduated LDCs and how they can get a favourable decision, said people familiar with the proposal. The LDCs’ proposal now highlights two main elements. In the first part, on the unilateral market access or duty- free and quota-free market access (DFQF), the preference granting members are requested in the best endeavour approach to establish procedures to extend and gradually phase out their preferential market access schemes, to be considered for a period of six to nine years after the effective date of graduation for any LDC, instead of 12 years as in their original proposal. In the second part, the LDCs proposed to reach an agreement between MC12 and MC13, which is envisioned to be held in 2023 by instructing the Sub-Committee for LDCs to prepare a package of support measures regarding WTO provisions for graduated LDCs and to report to the General Council at its first meeting in 2023. The LDCs argued that the interim arrangement submission will provide sufficient time to finalize the negotiations by the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13). According to the LDCs who spoke at the meeting, the main idea behind this new draft ministerial decision on LDC graduation is to propose a partial outcome at MC12 which would cover the DFQF question and establish a set of clear principles for a package of support measures to be negotiated post-MC12. In exchange, the LDC Group suggested that it is willing to show some flexibility on the 12-year duration period (at least for DFQF) and is ready to discuss the scope of support measures under WTO provisions to be extended in favour of all LDCs after their graduation.Many members who intervened at the meeting strongly supported the LDC Group’s proposal. The US, which appears to have adopted rather “frosty” positions on the proposals tabled by the LDCs so far, said that it has not studied the proposal and it needs time to review it. Even though the US was provided with the LDC proposal a long time back for reviewing it, Washington’s stance that it needs time to assess the proposal failed to convince the poorest countries at the meeting, said people familiar with the development. The European Union, which provides preferential market access to the LDCs under the “Everything But Arms” initiative, has already extended the scheme for at least three years for the graduated LDCs without making any further classification on the development status of the graduated countries. However, Brussels has now raised queries at the GC meeting about the criterion adopted for seeking an extension of six to nine years for unilateral market access, and is pushing for further differentiation among graduating LDCs, said people familiar with the development.
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