World Trade Group's Leader Says Discord Threatens Talks By ELIZABETH OLSON
GENEVA -- Frustrated by the World Trade Organization's apparent inability to agree on an agenda for its meeting barely three weeks away, the leader of the group has warned the 134 member countries that the meeting could end in failure.
In a surprisingly blunt letter released today by the office of Mike Moore, director general of the organization, Moore said the preparations for the meeting in Seattle were caught in a "vicious circle."
Success of the talks in helping break down resilient barriers to global commerce is critical to the credibility of Moore, a New Zealander who took over as the group's top official only two months ago.
Moore said in the letter that whatever progress had been made on an agenda was "far from sufficient." He urged member countries to give their representatives more flexibility to compromise on disputes delaying the agenda for the four-day meeting that starts on Nov. 30.
The letter, dated Thursday, was written on the eve of the trade group's deadline of today to complete the agenda. That deadline was not met, and another had not been set by tonight.
"The very short time remaining before the Seattle conference, and the magnitude of the continuing divergences in positions, means the preparatory process is at a critical point," Moore wrote to Ali Said Mchumo, Tanzania's trade ambassador and chairman of the trade group's decision-making council.
Negotiations have bogged down in serious differences among countries, particularly on the issue of agricultural subsidies that protect farmers from foreign competition.
The disputes over agricultural issues have boiled down to a test of wills pitting one bloc composed of the 15-nation European Union and Japan, South Korea, Norway and Switzerland, all of which have highly subsidized farming, against a second bloc comprising the big farm produce-exporting countries, including the United States.
Besides the disagreement over agriculture, the agenda negotiations are stalled by disputes over whether the fulfillment of some previous trade agreements should be on the agenda. Developing nations want delays in carrying these out, contending they need more time to fulfill complex agreements like those on safeguards for intellectual property rights. Developed countries oppose putting such requests on the agenda, saying they reopen issues that have already been resolved.
In the letter, Moore said he "strongly believed that unless governments give their delegations in Geneva additional flexibility necessary to reach acceptable and balanced compromises, we risk not being able to progress significantly." A 32-page draft of the agenda has not been changed since a high-level meeting of trade group representatives last week.
In his letter, Moore said he was appealing "through you to member governments to undertake without delay a review of their instructions to their negotiators in Geneva in order to break out of what could otherwise become a vicious circle."
Moore released the letter, his spokesman said, because "once you hand it over to delegates, it will get around."