Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-13-Speech-2-054"
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"en.20040113.4.2-054"2
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".
Mr President, you wanted us once again to review the progress of negotiations in the WTO on what is known as the Doha Development Agenda following the period of reflection, work and consultation that the Commission undertook after the collapse of the talks in Cancún. It is clear that since we last debated this, just after Cancún on 24 September, the situation has changed, both in the Union and in the WTO.
We are pleased to have been joined since the end of last week by the Americans, because my American counterpart has stated that he wishes to see a definite relaunch of the work in Geneva and has indicated, as we had done in our turn, that there is room for flexibility on some points. This is, I believe, a welcome initiative. It means that we can correct an increasingly widespread impression that, because 2004 is an election year in the United States, these negotiations would be, as it were, put on the backburner for the duration. Fortunately, my American counterpart has disabused us of this pessimistic notion.
What are we going to be doing in the coming weeks? Firstly, we are going to continue our dialogue with the developing countries, and in particular with countries in the G20 and G90. I myself took the initiative by travelling to Latin America in mid-December and we are going to pursue the dialogue that was, I think, begun to good effect on that occasion. The same goes for the G90. Next week I will be in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia to work on these various issues with countries that are clearly crucial negotiating partners.
As I said a moment ago, what is vital now is to see whether we can move forward quickly on agriculture, industrial tariffs, services and the Singapore issues that we consider to be priorities, that is trade facilitation and the transparency of public procurement. My feeling is that everyone, at least the United States and Europe, has sufficient room for manoeuvre. We now need to ensure that Brazil, South Africa, India, China and our Japanese friends invest as much energy in these negotiations as we are prepared to.
In any case, the message on which I would like to hear your views, the Commission’s message, is that we hope that in 2004 we will be able to make up for a large part of what we were unable to achieve in 2003 in Cancún, and we think we can.
I will address three aspects of the post-Cancún process: our policy following the Commission’s November communication and the General Affairs Council; the situation in the WTO since 15 December and, finally, the prospects for 2004.
Let us first turn our attention to our own policy. As you are aware, after Cancún, the Commission embarked on a phase of in-depth reflection and consultation of Parliament, the Member States, the social partners and civil society. All of this led, in mid-November, to a communication on relaunching the negotiating process, which we still believe to be of the utmost importance for the European Union. You received that communication. It has been debated in your committee that deals with external trade issues and has been discussed bilaterally with a number of your political groups.
Let me sum up this policy as it stands today. It is clear. Above all, we remain firmly attached to multilateralism. This remains the top priority of the Union’s trade policy and we want negotiations to resume as soon as possible.
On the substance, we have adopted a more flexible position on the so-called Singapore issues, which will please a number of the groups in this Parliament. We have also adopted a more flexible approach towards geographical indications and even the environment, so as to facilitate the negotiations.
On agriculture, we have reiterated our desire to inject momentum into these long, drawn-out negotiations, if only because since implementing our own reforms we have the means to make an active contribution to them. At long last, the European Union is no longer on the defensive here.
I will now say a word on the state of play in the WTO, in particular since work resumed on 15 December. The good news is that although Cancún had revealed slight differences of opinion, indeed even some substantial ones, on the need to pursue these negotiations, now everyone in the WTO agrees that it is important to resume them. We all agree that the world will probably be a worse place without a negotiated outcome than with one, which is an important political motivation. That is the good news! Nevertheless, will this mean that negotiations will proceed at a pace that will, in our view, make it possible for ambitious objectives to be achieved in 2004? It is still too early to say.
Let me move on to the third point, the prospects for the negotiations in 2004. The real challenge is not, I believe, to restart the discussions. There is agreement on this point and the process is underway. The real challenge is to make them proceed at a good pace and with the necessary energy and ambition.
We are going to spend a month or two on technical issues in Geneva. It is absolutely essential that this technical phase leads as soon as possible to a political phase, which will enable the various ministers to reiterate their positions on the timetable and the content of the final negotiations. The European Union has been working hard on this since mid-December."@en1
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