Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-02-Speech-2-196"
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"Mr President, as Commissioner Fischler and I will be attending the fifth World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference at Cancún, in Mexico, next week, in order to negotiate on the EU’s behalf, the Commission had a discussion this afternoon on the current state of preparations for this conference. I would like to say a few words to you about this, and then reply to any comments you may have to make.
As you know, the success of the round of trade negotiations launched at Doha, eighteen months ago now, is still the European Union’s primary concern as regards trade. It is our expectation that greater openness to trade in goods and services and to investments will consolidate growth in Europe on the basis of the ground rules, which are to be strengthened in order to provide a framework for this greater openness. What is also important, though, is that we are seeking to better involve developing countries in the world trade system, in order that they may benefit from the opening up of commerce and enjoy more of the benefits of globalisation, the harmful effects of which – and these do, emphatically, exist – will at the same time be alleviated.
As we will be able to finally judge at the end of this programme of negotiations, the hurdles have been set fairly high. What sort of results do we need from Cancún to ensure the success of this negotiating round, which, at Doha, we called the ‘development programme’? That is what we, members of the World Trade Organisation, are going to consider together at Cancún next week, when we proceed with a sort of mid-term review in which what really matters is that we will at last know whether or not we will manage to wind up the negotiations between now and the end of next year, as we decided 18 months ago now. That, basically, is the question that we are going to try to answer in Cancún, and if we are to answer in the affirmative, we first confirm that these negotiations are subject to a deadline of the end of 2004.
If our answer is to be in the affirmative, we will, in Cancún, have to be able to point to the completion of 50% of the negotiations across the board. The fact is that these are not negotiations in which subjects are dealt with one after the other, with one being agreed on before moving on to the next; rather, these are wide-ranging negotiations on some twenty subjects which can be said to represent a balance between points that opposing sides wish either to defend or to attack.
The issue at Cancún is, then, whether, as regards these negotiations as a whole, we have covered about half the road, and whether we are sufficiently convinced of that to leave the final deadline of the end of next year unchanged. Our concern, the European concern, is that this mid-term review will see the confirmation of this balance, as envisaged in the original programme, between the opening up of markets on the one hand and the strengthening of trade ground rules on the other. We are very attached to this balance, and, in political terms, we see it as essential, corresponding as it does to our own economic system, by which I mean one that is open to trade, but bounded by a framework of rules reflecting social, health and environmental concerns. This characterises the European Union in these negotiations, and it must be retained. For that purpose, it is important that we make progress at a tempo comparable to that of the subjects raised in the course of negotiations as a whole.
Looked at from this angle, where do we stand? It has been clear over the past weeks that things have been speeding up in Geneva. It is apparent that the prospect of the meeting next week has already given a boost to negotiations that were occasionally tending to slow down. The President of the General Council of the World Trade Organisation, the ambassador who chairs what is termed the WTO’s General Council in Geneva, has put on the table a draft final statement which will serve as the basis on which the negotiators at ministerial level meeting in Cancún will work.
Commissioner Fischler and I have already said on many occasions that we are not enthusiastic about this draft. We see various points in the draft statement as being seriously problematic, but it is a good thing that it actually exists and is clearly set out. Some things in it, I repeat, are not acceptable. Whether on agriculture, on industrial tariffs, whether on the environment or on geographical descriptions, we see this text as unbalanced, and so, I might add, do the other members of the WTO, but, as the WTO spokesman so humorously said, the ministers need something to do at Cancún. As negotiators on behalf of the Fifteen, we will continue to fight for a result that strikes a balance between the opening up of markets and the laying down of rules making it possible to give the developmental dimension a more prominent place in all subject areas.
We are often asked whether we are optimistic or pessimistic about Cancún’s chances of success. You have not yet asked this, but I would like to say to you that Commissioner Fischler and I are neither the one nor the other. We are negotiating on behalf of the EU, which has mandated us to do so. Its mandate sets limits to what we can accept, and, as is customary, we will give you an account of the progress of the debates, as things happen and on the spot. We will be accompanied by those who actually have political authority over us, namely the EU’s Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, as well as by representatives of other parties involved. We will therefore have the chance, on the spot, to evaluate precisely where we have got to, but let us be clear in our own minds about the fact that we have been formally mandated following debates held over recent months, both in the Council of Ministers and in Parliament. Commissioner Fischler and I will therefore take this mandate as the basis for what we do.
I will conclude by emphasising that we will be taking with us good news when we set off for Cancún at the end of the week, and by that I mean the agreement reached last weekend on access to medicines. It may be said that this agreement derogates for the first time from current patent regulations in order to allow countries in need of them to import generic medicines. This agreement shows that the World Trade Organisation is capable of responding to the needs of developing countries. This is no longer merely a project, a speech, or a vision, but tangible confirmation that globalisation can, and must, go hand in hand with development. To sum up, although this agreement is only a small part of the enormous problem of poorer countries’ access to medicines, it nonetheless marks a forward step, and, with you as my witnesses, I welcome it on behalf of the EU. Apart from that, we know where we stand on the various subjects and, as I have just said, we will act on the basis of the mandate you have given us."@en1
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