Following reports of modest results at the World Trade Organization’s Hong Kong ministerial, USCIB called on all WTO governments to find the “political will” to complete a Doha Round trade agreement by the end of 2006.
In Hong Kong, WTO negotiators reached agreement to eliminate agricultural export subsidies by 2013. But in many areas, including scaling back other trade-distorting farm policies, progress was incremental and many tough decisions deferred.
“Governments had lowered expectations going into the Hong Kong meeting, but business is nevertheless disappointed that ministers were not able to achieve more progress after four years of negotiations,” said USCIB President Peter M. Robinson.
Mr. Robinson applauded the U.S negotiating team, led by U.S Trade Representative Rob Portman, for its leadership in Hong Kong on a wide range of issues, including many that are not headline issues, such as fisheries subsidies.
“It is clear that all WTO governments will have to find greater political will and commitment if an acceptable result is to be achieved by the end of next year,” said Mr. Robinson. “No country can stand on the sidelines. We are confident that the U.S. and other parties will continue to work toward an ambitious and comprehensive result. The year 2006 is the last, best opportunity to realize the global benefits of substantial trade liberalization that these negotiations offer.”
Also at the Hong Kong ministerial, USCIB representatives contributed to worldwide industry efforts to fight a rollback of the Doha Round services talks, which certain countries threatened to scale back in response to the lack of progress on agricultural issues. More information is available from Joseph Gavin (202-371-1316 or jgavin@uscib-dc.org).
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TRIPS Amendment Averted – At the Hong Kong ministerial, a group of developing countries led by India sought to launch formal negotiations to amend the Uruguay Round agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), in order to mandate source disclosure and evidence of prior informed consent in patent applications. Concerted action by industry, including an ICC position paper, along with strong support from the U.S. government and others, succeeded in fending off these efforts. The final ministerial declaration calls only for intensification of review of the issues related to source disclosure, which have been discussed for several years by the TRIPS Council in the context of obligations under TRIPS and the Convention on Biological Diversity. However, the final declaration does call on the WTO Council to review progress and take any appropriate action by July 31. The ICC paper is available at www.uscib.org/docs/Final_ICC_Statement_on_TRIPS-Source_Disclosure.pdf. To learn more, contact Alix Heywood (212-703-5090 or aheywood@uscib.org).
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