WTO Announces Intensive Non-agricultural Consultation Schedule

27 October 2008

Ambassador Luzius Wasescha, the new chair of the Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiation group, has briefed delegations on the progress of his consultations.

In his speech on October 22, Ambassador Wasescha, exhorted his audience to work hard, jokingly threatening them with 4am meetings if they did not! He pointed out that he was just a facilitator and that the result was truly in their hands. He was unable to resolve their problems for them. He urged the delegations to listen to each other rather than just talk, for it was only by understanding each other’s problems, that a fair consensus was likely to be achieved.

In the course of his consultations, Ambassador Wasescha joked that he had come to learn that NAMA had many other meanings, including, ‘street-children’, ‘beer’, ‘meat’, ‘girl’ and 'no mum', in various member languages.

Continuing in a light-hearted tone he warned that “whenever you make a promise to a Swiss [person], it is the equivalent of making a promise to a Swiss banker! Especially in these days.”

On a more sombre note he noted the poor global economic climate, and urged his audience to keep their demands in perspective, pointing out that there could not be individual winners and losers in a truly successful round. Success would make the future a little less gloomy, he observed.

A veteran of the WTO, Ambassador Wasescha, commenting on the difficulties faced in the Doha round, observed that one notable difference between the Uruguay round and the Doha rounds was the knock on effect of making changes in the Doha round, making finding stable solutions without adverse repercussions that much harder.

Moving on to more specific considerations he reported that he had thus far met 47 delegations, with a further 10 scheduled meetings.

“Nobody is totally happy, and nobody is totally depressed,” he noted, adding that this was a good starting point. He also reported that there had been no disagreement with using the July text as a starting point for negotiations.

In discussing specific situations and delegations, Ambassador Wasescha noted that “Argentina up to now has not yet joined a growing consensus. Therefore I will consult with Argentina to know more and understand better their real concerns.”

He moved on to discuss other specific situations and to outline the schedule of meetings and consultations for the next month, concluding by thanking the delegations, and urging them to use all available time to bring their positions closer to each other.

About NAMA

According to the WTO “The negotiations aim to reduce or eliminate tariffs, including tariff peaks, high tariffs, tariff escalation and non-tariff barriers for non-agricultural goods, in particular on products of export interest to developing countries. The product coverage shall be comprehensive and without a priori exclusions. Special and Differential treatment for developing and least developed Members shall be fully taken into account, including through less than full reciprocity in the reduction commitments and measures to assist LDCs to participate effectively in the negotiations.”

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