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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Apr20/10) Geneva, 15 Apr (D. Ravi Kanth) – The World Trade Organization’s director-general Roberto Azevedo, who chairs the Doha Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), wants to elicit members’ views on 17 April for conducting informal meetings and for taking decisions where they are required, trade envoys told the SUNS. The DG plans to host “a virtual informal Heads of Delegations (HoD) meeting on 17 April,” said several trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted. In an email sent to members on 9 April, and seen by the SUNS, the DG emphasized that “the meeting on 17 April will be informal for information sharing purposes only – no decisions will be taken.” At the start of the virtual informal HoD meet, the General Council chair, Ambassador David Walker of New Zealand, and the DG will “briefly update you (members) on our activities regarding the response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, then open the floor for suggestions on how the WTO can continue to conduct its work during the lockdown.” Towards this end, the DG posed two questions, seeking two-minute responses from members. The two questions posed are: * Is your Delegation comfortable with the conduct of informal meetings and exchange of views (i.e. without formal decision-making) through virtual meetings? * What are your views on meetings where decisions are required? Are you open to the use of virtual platforms to take decisions, or alternatively to written procedures for the adoption of decisions? (The precise modalities for such procedures would need to be agreed through further discussion with Members). The 17 April informal meeting will be the “first test” on how members intend to continue their activities in the WTO, the DG said, in his email. Based on the results and views expressed during the virtual informal HoD meeting on 17 April, he said, “substantive discussions may follow”, said trade envoys. Meanwhile, in a separate email to members, the Chair of the Doha rules negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, indicated that India and the least-developed countries have sought more time to respond to questions raised by members on their separate proposals concerning the disciplines for IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing, overfishing and overcapacity, and global fish stocks among others. In his email of 9 April, Ambassador Wills wrote that “while we are waiting for the proponents’ responses, I would like to take the opportunity to consult with interested delegations on our process, in particular I would like to hear your ideas and views on how we could organize work to continue making progress in these difficult times, in an inclusive and transparent manner, taking into account the current limits on personal movement and the related uncertainty, and the practical challenges of virtual meetings.” To address these issues, the fisheries chair intends to hold bilateral telephone-consultations on April 16 and 17, said those familiar with the chair’s email. According to several trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted, holding informal information-gathering meetings is one thing, and attempting to enter into hard negotiations is quite another. The DG must understand that while some countries in Western Europe are reopening their economies in a calibrated manner, most developing countries are continuing with their complete lockdown conditions, said several trade envoys. Moreover, at a time when the lockdown in Geneva and in many national capitals are likely to be extended until the end of this month depending on the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic that has already claimed more than 125,000 lives around the world, attempts to launch either virtual or real negotiating conferences is inappropriate, said trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted. Informal or formal trade negotiations will depend a great deal on delegations maintaining constant consultations with their capitals as well as with their respective stakeholders, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. According to the trade envoy, the convening of such meetings could tarnish the image of the WTO which has already been criticized for placing trade liberalization before saving lives from the COVID-19 pandemic, the trade envoy said. The global coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs) had on 9 April asked for an immediate “stop” to trade negotiations at the WTO, due to the “overwhelming need for governments around the world to focus their full efforts on saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic.” The CSOs said it is disturbing to see “some governments are still pushing forward negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as in bilateral and other trade negotiations.” “We are calling on governments to: Stop all trade and investment treaty negotiations during the COVID-19 outbreak and refocus on access to medical supplies and saving lives,” the CSOs demanded emphatically. The global civil society organizations also called for ending “unilateral sanctions; ensure that countries have the flexibilities to set aside trade rules that constrain their ability to resolve the pandemic; and to re-think the types of rules that are negotiated in trade agreements, including those that can encourage monopolies and reduce affordable access to all forms of medical supplies, and put at risk the lives of people in every country of the world.” In a separate development on 13 April, the US President Donald Trump launched a withering attack against the WTO and the World Health Organization at his daily briefing on COVID-19. Asked about his recent complaints against the World Health Organization, the President responded, “I’m not happy with the World Health Organization. I’m not happy with the World Trade Organization. We have been ripped off by everybody.” The WHO and the WTO, said President Trump, are “the Bobbsey twins,” which are quoted in children’s books. He claimed that progress has been made with the WTO only due to the pressure he put on the organization. “They know I will leave if we don’t get treated fairly,” Trump said. He said the United States almost never won dispute settlement cases at the WTO until he threatened to pull the United States out. “Now we are winning a lot of them,” he said, adding that “we will pull out if we have to.” President Trump spoke about the US effort to kill the WTO’s appeals process by blocking the appointment of any new members to the Appellate Body (AB). With only a single member sitting now on the seven-member Appellate Body, the US recently challenged whether the AB’s sole remaining member was qualified to sit on the panel, arguing the member is actually a representative of the Chinese government.
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