WTO and the Private Sector


WTO organised a debate on the side lines of the WTO Public Forum 2009 on the subject 'Is the WTO out of touch with Business'. Reinhard Quick, Vice-Chairman of BusinessEurope WTO Working Group, and Jonathan Lynn, Bureau chief of Reuters News in Geneva, discussed these issues with Keith Rockwell, WTO Spokesperson

A transcript of this debate is given below*.



Mr Rockwell
No sector of the economy benefits more from transparent rules and procedures in international trade than the business community. And yet there are those in the business community, and elsewhere, who believe that the global trading system and the World Trade Organization do not deliver all that is required for operating in the market place in the twenty first century. Does the WTO give the business community all it requires to trade in the complex environment of today? And if not, what can be done to rectify that situation? Fortunately we are joined by two experts on this matter, Jonathan Lynn, the Geneva Bureau Chief for Reuters, and Reinhard Quick, who is the Vice Chairman of Business Europe's WTO Working Group. Gentlemen, welcome.

Rheinard, why don't we start with you? Does the WTO deliver all it should?

Mr Quick
Well, I think you have to say that the WTO delivers a lot for the business community given the fact that the WTO has created a rules based system, on which the business community relies heavily. But if we look, however, at the speed of the DDA, I am not sure whether the WTO delivers and adapts to the developments of today's trading environment and what business really needs. And let me give you several examples.

Of course it is important to conclude the DDA Round. The sooner the better, but not just to conclude, but to conclude with an ambitious result. And that is where we feel some of the problems lie. Some of the areas which have been proposed for negotiations have not been put on the table any longer, and some of the issues will not be dealt with in order to conclude the Round quickly. To give you an example, we of course would like to see Market Access, Services and Agriculture deals which will bring forward ambition, but there are other issues such as the whole area where the WTO deals with the export situation, export taxes, export duties, dual pricing of raw material, in other words, access to raw materials, which will not be dealt with and that is of concern to us. The whole area of trade in environment and trade in climate change we also see that the WTO will not deliver in this Round, although we need it urgently because there is some discussion on protectionist measures in the trade in climate change debate which we really loathe, if I may say so, and we are concerned about these protectionist issues, and therefore my answer is yes, of course the WTO delivers, and has delivered, but there is also a need for adaptation and there we need more deliveries.

Mr Rockwell
Would you share that assessment Jonathan?

Mr Lynn
I think I would. It is obvious that the WTO is crucial to the needs of business and the work of the WTO does, for instance, in running a rules based trading system that provides predictability for businesses, that is very important. But when you talk to business you find a lot of frustration, not to say cynicism, about the pace of change here, the pace of negotiations and people who are following the trade talks here say it is remarkable how absent business is. In the past they were here, they were lobbying, they were showing interest. They don't seem to be around now. The negotiators say yes, they are there in the background, they are talking to us, but a lot of people say that if business is not pushing for a trade deal, it is not going to happen because it requires business to be pushing the, take the example of the United States, business has to be pushing the US Congress, telling the White House, yes, we want this deal. Otherwise the White House is not going to spend the political capital to make something like that happen.

Mr Rockwell
So would it be fair to say, Rheinard then, that the business community is not fully supportive of the Doha Development Agenda?

Mr Quick
I don't think that is fair to say. I think the business community is fully supportive of the Doha agenda, or I should say, has been fully supportive of the Doha agenda because the Doha agenda at a certain point of time was much bigger than it is now. We are supportive of the Doha agenda and of course we are working very much in the background to prepare papers and also to have discussions with our authorities. We are not as outspoken with let's say CEOs, as we have been during the Uruguay Round, because during the Uruguay Round we had much more rules negotiated. I mean there was a Market Access as well, but there were a lot of rules negotiated and we were very outspoken on Rules such as Anti Dumping, Intellectual Property, Services, SPS and TBT, so there was a lot of contribution from the business community on these rules. Now, if you look at what is happening right now, we have Market Access, we have Agriculture, we have Services, not very far, I have to say, and Trade Facilitation. Trade Facilitation is subject which we have been discussing a lot and I see also quite a good outcome on Trade Facilitation, interestingly enough, a subject which didn't get the political, how do you say that, the political impetus, but the other subjects, in particular NAMA, or Market Access on industrial goods, they have a lot of political infights and there we would like to see some more movement. So the business community is behind the WTO, not only because of a systemic approach, but because we want to see further liberalization and we would like to see world trade more liberalized, so we want a little bit more ambition put in this house.

Mr Rockwell
Both you Jonathan, and Reinhard have mentioned the pace of the negotiations, the pace at which things get done here. Do you have any recommendations for addressing this particular shortcoming?

Mr Lynn
Recommendations on the pace of negotiations. I think where the frustration arises is what is being termed here a mismatch between people saying yes, let's finish it by the end of this year, let's finish it by 2010, setting deadlines, and then you don't see the same progress happening at the negotiating level. So I think, in so far as it is up to me to make a recommendation on something like this, when political leaders make a promise and set a deadline, then they should make sure that they are also instructing their negotiators to show the flexibility to move that way, otherwise the whole thing risks losing credibility.

Mr Rockwell
And you feel that is not happening now?

Mr Lynn
The jury is out on that. I guess the next few months are going to be fairly crucial. There is a very busy work schedule that has been set up, but it remains to be seen whether the promises of the leaders in Pittsburgh and other places early this year to finish the Round by 2010 will be translated into action by negotiators here and to be fair, that requires orders from the leaders. The leaders have set the term but they also have to ensure the negotiators have the room to manoeuvre.

Mr Rockwell
Reinhard Quick, your final thoughts?

Mr Reinhard
Well I think we need to do two things. One is to conclude the Round, but with a little bit more ambition. I should not say more, but a little bit more ambition, so that there is more trade liberalization decided in the WTO. But then those issues which I have addressed earlier, which will not be dealt with in this Round, need to be tackled and not in a way that we wait until 2030, until we have results on export taxes, results on trade in environment and in particular results on trade in climate change. So a little bit more ambition and then quickly going into the new subject with deliveries.

Mr Rockwell
Jonathan Lynn, you have the last word.

Mr Lynn
Well, I think when we talk about is the WTO relevant to business, we have to forget the businesses is only one, albeit a very important stakeholder, in the whole trade process, and one of the challenges of this negotiating round has been the tension between market access creating new opportunities for business and development, giving new opportunities to developing countries. The two don't always coincide, that should be possible for good teams of negotiators to find a way to get them together.

Mr Rockwell
Jonathan Lynn, Reinhard Quick, thank you very much and thanks to you for watching WTO Forum.



*Vidéo of the debate can be accessed at:
www.wto.org/english/forums_e/debates_e/debate16_e.htm