EU likely to bar talks at Doha on four sectors

By Tobias Buck in Brussels, Guy de Jonquiýres in London and,Edward Alden in Washington

Financial Times

Feb 05, 2003

The European Union is expected to bow today to political and popular concern about public services, by ruling out talks in the Doha world trade round on further liberalization of its health, education, energy and water markets. Officials said the EU stance, to be outlined by Pascal Lamy, trade commissioner, at a European Commission meeting, reflected acute sensitivities among member governments and the impact of campaigns by activists opposed to further private sector involvement in public services.

Although the officials insisted many of the activists’ allegations about the World Trade Organization’s role in regulating public services were exaggerated or wrong, they said they wanted to avoid fuelling the controversy. “If we want to attempt to carry civil society groups, then we should avoid scaring them unnecessarily,” said one government official.

The officials added that the EU had already committed itself in the Uruguay Round to opening its markets in the four sectors, and that in several it had received few demands from trade partners for further liberalization.

The Commission will also make clear that under strong pressure from France, it remains opposed to WTO talks on liberalizing audio-visual services, despite US pressure to eliminate its restrictions on non-EU suppliers. However, in a gesture to developing countries, Brussels is expected to signal that it is prepared to discuss further relaxation of its rules on the temporary immigration of skilled personnel providing business and professional services. India, which wants to increase its computer software exports, has long demanded that its citizens be allowed greater freedom to travel to rich countries to provide such services.

The proposal to limit the services negotiations comes as the EU also faces internal difficulties in pushing ahead with the agricultural negotiations seen as key to the success of the round. Franz Fischler, EU agriculture minister, warned in Washington yesterday that “there is a risk if we don’t make progress in the agriculture negotiations that the whole round would stop” at a key meeting of WTO ministers in Cancun, Mexico in September. But he said the EU could still negotiate seriously, even if member states refused to endorse before Cancun his proposals for overhauling Europe’s common agriculture policy to reduce trade distortions.

In unveiling that proposal last month, Mr Fischler had said that CAP reform would greatly improve the EU’s ability to support an ambitious agriculture deal in the Doha Round. But his proposal has been greeted harshly by France and several other member states.

James Howard

Director

Employment and International Labour Standards International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)

5, Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 1210 Brussels, Belgium