TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Nov17/26)
30 November 2017
Third World Network
      
DG denies any responsibility for system crisis at WTO
Published in SUNS #8585 dated 29 November 2017

Geneva, 28 Nov (D. Ravi Kanth) - The World Trade Organization director-general Roberto Azevedo denied on Monday (27 November) that because of his close proximity and continued genuflection to the diktats from the United States, he is responsible for the "systemic" crises affecting the trade body on several fronts.

During a press conference hosted by the Association of Accredited Correspondents to the United Nations (ACANU) here, Azevedo remained deafeningly silent on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations, but suggested a plurilateral opening for electronic commerce.

[According to independent trade analysts like Mr. Chakravarthi Raghavan, Editor-Emeritus of SUNS, and Mr. B. K. Zutshi, former Indian Ambassador to GATT who had negotiated the Uruguay Round Agreements, and coordinated developing country positions on GATS negotiations, depending on the specific negotiating agenda of a plurilateral on e-commerce, the end product would be found discriminatory and violative of several provisions of the GATT 1994 and GATS. SUNS]

Mr. Azevedo was responding to questions as to whether, given his proximity with one member who is blocking work on several fronts, he will hold himself responsible for the "systemic crises" plaguing the WTO.

Visibly angry, Azevedo initially responded with: "What is your question?"

In repeating "the simple question", Azevedo was asked: "do you hold yourself responsible for the systemic crises facing this organization?"

Azevedo responded with an emphatic "NO", but did not offer any substantive reasons.

However, he defended the positions adopted by the United States in regard to the blocking of the ministerial declaration for the Buenos Aires meeting and the appointment of new members to the Appellate Body.

Azevedo said, "the US has made it quite clear that it has misgivings about the way the multilateral trading system has been delivering and functioning."

That "is their [the US] perspective [while] other members have their own perspectives," he added.

The Director-General, as the custodian of the WTO, did not say whether the US, which has created and crafted the rules for the WTO (and its agreements), is justified in adopting such a position.

He went on, however, to defend the US by saying "I think as far as concrete proposals on the table, the US is supportive of some [proposals] and against others.

That is the "dynamics" of the negotiations of every ministerial meeting, he added.

Trade diplomats and observers have however noted that the issue facing the WTO is not whether the US is supportive or opposed to concrete proposals that are being discussed.

In an organization based on mercantile principles, it is well understood that every member is prone to taking diverse positions depending on their respective core trade interests.

However, the manner in which the US is blocking negotiations on unresolved issues in the Doha Development Agenda is an issue of grave cause for the "systemic crisis", said a trade envoy who asked not to be quoted.

The US, for example, has blocked negotiations on improvements in special and differential treatment flexibilities, improvements in transparency and due process provisions concerning anti-dumping and subsidies and countervailing measures, and trade-distorting domestic support for farm products among others.

On the US decision to block the language in the ministerial decision for the Buenos Aires meeting, Azevedo said it has already happened in other forums.

Azevedo said, "the Americans are acting consistently as they have problems with the multilateral system."

Asked to comment on the US proposal for institutional reform and whether it will be a major issue at Buenos Aires, Azevedo said there are no concrete proposals from the US.

He said already issues concerning transparency are being addressed through different proposals.

On the issue of voting to take decisions at the WTO instead of adhering to the consensus principle, the director-general said it has happened once or twice when members opted for voting.

[However, given the language in the first two sentences of paragraph one of Art. IX of the WTO Treaty, and the specific provision in the DSU (Art 2, paragraph 4) that decisions by the DSB are to be taken by consensus, it is not at all clear that when the DSB is unable to take a decision for lack of consensus, the issue can be resolved by recourse to voting, as per Art.IX:1, first sentence. SUNS]

A South American trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted, said that Azevedo wants to keep the Buenos Aires meeting as a business-as-usual one, without any fanfare and acrimonious battles between the United States on the one side, and rest of the membership on the other, for fear of attracting the wrath of the Trump administration, and its threats to pull out of the WTO.

"Azevedo is mortally worried that Buenos Aires might mark the end of the WTO," the envoy said, suggesting that, "he thinks it would be better to keep things in the business-as-usual mode."

Significantly, at the press conference on Monday, Azevedo remained totally silent on the Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations while choosing to speak on electronic commerce and other issues.

Without mentioning an overwhelming opposition to changing the current e-commerce mandate, as mooted by a group of industrialized and developing countries, Azevedo indicated that some countries could opt for the plurilateral negotiations on e-commerce at the Buenos Aires ministerial meeting next month.

On electronic commerce, the director-general said members are working on two tracks: while some members want to continue with the 1998 work program on e-commerce, there are others who want to expand the agenda.

"There is some work [on e-commerce] that is happening outside that group [where] members are talking (about) this in less than multilateral format, in plurilateral formats. Several groups are discussing this, but what happens in Buenos Aires is entirely at the discretion of those members and they are going to decide what they are going to do if they are not going to go multilaterally," Azevedo said.

The director-general said he would prefer multilateral solutions on e-commerce and other issues suggesting that things will become clear only in Buenos Aries.

Azevedo admitted that there is no convergence yet on any issue at this juncture. "Several things are on the table but there is no convergence yet on anything," he said. "We may have convergence on some and we may not have [convergence on other issues]."

Azevedo said he doesn't know what is going to happen at Buenos Aires while emphasizing that "whatever happens in Buenos Aires, I myself (am) convinced that Buenos Aires is not the end of the road."

"Buenos Aires is one more step in the direction of trade liberalization and an improvement in the system of the multilateral trade liberalization," Azevedo said.

The eleventh ministerial meeting starting on December 10 in Buenos Aires "is a good opportunity" for taking stock of what members had already achieved, for deciding what can be harvested at this juncture, and for preparing the ground for the conversations after the Buenos Aires meeting, the director-general said.

In short, Azevedo is working hard to turn the Buenos Aires meeting into a pure vegetable to ensure that the Trump administration remains happy without any credible outcome while burying the Doha trade negotiations on the Atlantic shore, trade envoys said.