§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what role her Department played in the development on the non-paper on trade liberalisation at the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg; and what outcomes emerged from discussions relating to this paper involving her Department. [77568]
§ Ms HewittAt the end of the World Summit on sustainable Development (WSSD) Bali Prepcom in June, the Chair asked Member States for ideas on how to resolve those areas (which included parts other trade text amongst others) of the Plan of Implementation which had yet to be agreed. The European Commission (acting in accordance with its general mandate from EU member states to negotiate trade issues) and the US agreed a non-paper on the trade, finance and globalisation texts which was submitted to the South Africans as an informal contribution in advance of WSSD in Johannesburg. This was not a formal EU position agreed by member states. The formal EU position was adopted in the Development Council conclusions on WSSD agreed in May prior to the WSSD Bali Prepcom.
All discussions on trade liberalisation issues at Johannesburg itself were based on text negotiated at the Bali Prepcom and developed through subsequent drafts produced by the Chair of the Trade Group (the Antiguan Ambassador to the UN) during WSSD itself. I welcome the fact that the final trade sections of the WSSD text strongly reinforce the commitments made at the WTO Ministerial in Doha in November 2001. The text as agreed by consensus is publicly available on the WSSD website (www.johannesburgsummit.org/).