§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleMy right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Hewitt) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 1 August the General Council of the World Trade Organisation agreed a framework text for further negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda. Commissioners Lamy and Fischler negotiated on behalf of the European Union. I warmly welcome this Framework Agreement, which is a crucial step on the road to delivering a trade round that will benefit developed and developing countries alike.
On 17 September last year I made an oral Statement to the House (Official Report, Commons, cols. 861–63), about the WTO ministerial conference in Cancun, where WTO members had been unable to reach an agreement. In that Statement I said that in order to get the Doha Development Agenda back on track, the WTO community would need to lift its sights to the prize on offer. I believe that WTO Members have done just that. The period since Cancun has been marked by a much more positive and business-like atmosphere and the Framework Agreement has now cemented the progress made.
For the most part the purpose of the Framework Agreement is to set out guiding principles for future negotiations rather than to provide specific proposals. However, it contains sufficient detail to allow technical discussions to continue during the rest of this year, when the US presidential elections and the appointment of a new College of Commissioners are likely to limit political engagement in the round.
The Framework Agreement gives greater detail on the direction of the negotiations on agriculture, industrial tariffs, commits WTO members to negotiate on a trade facilitation agreement and sets a revised target date for more requests in the ongoing services negotiations. Agriculture is generally acknowledged to be the key to progress in the round and the agriculture section contains a welcome level of detail. The agreement provides for extensive special and differential treatment for developing countries across all the sectors covered. Three of the four so-called Singapore Issues (competition, investment and transparency in government procurement), divergent views on which did much to derail talks at Cancun, have been dropped from the Doha Development Agenda. The fourth—trade facilitation—will now be the subject of negotiations.
The text of the agreement reflects the increasing influence of developing countries within the WTO. This is a development that I have previously welcomed. India and Brazil in particular played an influential role in the lead up to the agreement. Both the G20 group (larger developing country agricultural exporters) and G90 (some 62 smaller developing countries) engaged in the negotiations in a flexible and constructive manner. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development, my 75WS right honourable friend the secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my honourable friend the Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs and I were in regular contact with a number of influential members of both of these groupings, as well as our EU colleagues, to underline the importance of reaching an agreement. My honourable friend the Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs and I between us attended the two General Affairs and External Relations Council meetings held in the last week of July to agree the EU's position for this stage of the negotiations.
The Government have been strongly supportive of the Commission's approach to negotiations in the period since Cancun. We consider that the Commission has shown leadership and flexibility to move talks forward, capitalising on the stronger negotiating position that the EU enjoys after the CAP reforms of June 2003 and March 2004, which will cut significantly the level both of trade-distorting domestic support and export subsidies. In particular, the conditional offer to eliminate of export subsidies in the letter of 9 May from Commissioners Lamy and Fischler to WTO trade Ministers helped to breathe new life into the talks and encouraged other developed countries to match the EU's level of ambition. My honourable friend the Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs and I attended meetings of the General Affairs and External Relations Council in the week leading up to the Framework Agreement where we strongly supported the European Commission.
There is much still to be done. The challenge now for the whole WTO membership of 148 countries is to build on this success and to ensure that the momentum that has been built up is maintained in the detailed negotiations that will now follow. Success in the Round has the potential to deliver huge benefits, including for developing countries as their opportunities for trade increase, so adding to their prosperity, aiding development and contributing towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Gaols.
The Government will continue do all we can, both inside the EU and within the broader WTO community, to help to deliver an ambitious development-focused Round. In particular, we will press hard for substantial progress before the sixth WTO Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong scheduled for December 2005.