archives: WTO InfoAfrican countries may consider to quit WTO
This AP newswire contains an interesting remark by Vijay Makhan, the African Union's Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Economic Affairs. Commenting on the Cancun collapse, Makhan reportedly said that "Africa will have to take a political decision whether it is worthwhile to stay in an organization that is not proving its worth."
Erik Wesselius
Corporate Europe Observatory / GATSwatchEU May Switch to Bilateral Trade Deals
PAUL GEITNER
Associated PressBRUSSELS, Belgium - After the collapse of world trade talks, the European Union will have to decide whether to stay focused on a global deal or concentrate more on pacts with individual countries, the EU's top trade negotiator said Tuesday.
Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, back from the World Trade Organization's failed negotiations in Mexico, said he still believed in the multilateral approach but was pessimistic that the talks could be revived anytime soon at WTO headquarters in Geneva.
Lamy said he would have to see if views had changed at the European Parliament or among the 15 EU governments, which control his negotiating mandate.
"We need a good hard think among ourselves," he said.
The WTO talks stalled after a bloc of major developing countries refused to budge from demands for concessions from richer nations in the 146-member organization, which must make its decisions by consensus.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Monday that Washington will pursue negotiations on several bilateral and regional free trade agreements while it waits to see what develops at the WTO level.
"Seen from their (American) point of view that's probably an approach one can understand," Lamy said, given the size of the U.S. economy.
But he warned that bilateral deals can be just as difficult, noting that recent agreements between the EU and Mexico, Chile, Egypt and Nigeria all took at least five years to negotiate.
"The problems you encounter in multilateral negotiation are problems you also encounter there," he said.
Meanwhile, the African Union's top trade official said Tuesday that African nations should consider pulling out of the WTO because the talks were geared to the concerns of developed countries and little progress was being made to help poor ones.
Vijay Makhan, the African Union's Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Economic Affairs, said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that high agricultural tariffs and lavish farm subsidies in wealthy countries - which hurt farmers in poor nations - were hardly touched upon during the summit.
Agriculture is the primary economic driver in most African countries.
"If the trend carries on in this way, I think there will have to be a rethink of the workings or non-workings of the WTO," Makhan said. "If things don't change, then Africa will have to take a political decision whether it is worthwhile to stay in an organization that is not proving its worth."
Lamy acknowledged that having to bring more than 140 ministers together to make very detailed decisions affecting billions of people - "that alone, that theory, visibly doesn't work." He said he may propose changes to the WTO's rules to improve efficiency, but cautioned that any rule alterations would take a very long time.
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Associated Press Writer Anthony Mitchell in Addis Ababa contributed to this report.
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