WTO talks collapse
India opposes US move on labour issue

SEATTLE, Dec 4 (PTI, Reuters)—The World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference, aimed at starting a new round of trade liberalisation talks, collapsed today after India and several developing nations thwarted a US move to bulldoze its way into incorporating core labour standards in the WTO work programme as the 135-nation body failed to break a deadlock on crucial issues, including agriculture.

The talks, which lasted four days, were suspended and will resume after the Christmas holidays in Geneva, the multilateral trade body’s headquarters, spokesman of the WTO Keith Rockwell said.

Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran emerging from the committee of the whole meeting representing all WTO members said the conference remained “inconclusive” and there will be no ministerial declaration setting out the future work programme.

“India’s stand has been vindicated,” he told reporters.

The four-day conference was marked by confrontation right from the first day both inside and outside the conference venue as protesters, believed to have been instigated by the USA, violently laid siege to the convention centre.

Inside the conference hall, developing countries battled to resist a US move to press ahead with inclusion of core labour standards as part of an expanded trade negotiations agenda.

Congress leader Kamal Nath, here as part of the Indian delegation, appreciated the Vajpayee government’s “firmness” in handling the issues at the conference.

“We would like to give the credit to government where it is due”, he said, adding “at one time I felt India might succumb to the US pressure and had even come prepared with a statement in consultation with Congress President Sonia Gandhi to condemn it.”

The us expressed disappointment over the failure. “The negotiations have been extremely hard and the issues very complex. In the end, there were just too many differences on too many issues,” US Commerce Secretary William Daley said.

“I’m of course very disappointed that the delegates were unable to reach consensus to launch a new round of trade talks,” he said in a statement.

However, US Trade representative Charlene Barshefsky said negotiations on agriculture and services, mandated under the Uruguay Round, would begin as scheduled in January. Two agreements, trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and trade related investment measures, would also be reviewed as agreed in 1994.

The Cairns group, representing 18 agricultural exporting nations, including Australia, New Zealand and South Africa expressed disappointment that the WTO meeting had failed to launch a new round of trade talks.

Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile, however, said substantial progress had been made in Seattle towards “developing a detailed agricultural decision, crucial elements of which had widespread support from both developed and developing countries”.

European Union (EU) spokesman Anthony Gooch said there were moves to make the trade bloc a "scapegoat" for failure of the conference as it was believed to have blocked proposed cuts in agricultural subsidies.

Many member countries also felt that the US opposition to a basic agreement on reform of anti-dumping regulations was also a reason for the failure.

African countries were sore over the way negotiations were being conducted and said "there is no transparency in the proceedings and African countries are being marginalised and generally excluded on issues of vital importance for our people and their future."

"We reject the approach that is being employed and we must point out that under the present circumstances, we will not be able to join the consensus required to meet objectives of this ministerial conference," Mr John Abu, vice-president of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the African Economic Community, had said yesterday.

Thai Director-General of Economic Affairs Kobsak Chutikul blamed the outcome on conference procedures that lacked transparency and the US insistence on imposing minimum labour standards.

The USA also failed in its attempts to include labour standards such as a ban on child labour as part of a 15-draft document cobbled by four working groups that worked through the night.

But the draft, that indicated all member countries were agreeable to a limited round of talks, had not been adopted as talks broke down.

Meanwhile, the USA and the EU said they would push ahead with new world farm trade talks next year, despite the collapse of efforts to launch broader negotiations.

But in a sign of how difficult those talks could be, EU officials said progress made at the WTO meeting would not necessarily lay the basis for beginning new negotiations.

"There’s no commitment at all and, therefore, there’s nothing on the table," Mr Eu Franz Fischler told reporters. "We have to launch new negotiations now on Article 20 (of the 1994 Uruguay Round Pact) and we have to start from the very beginning", he remarked.

Delhi (UNI): Expressing dismay at the outcome of the Seattle WTO ministerial conference, the Confederation of Indian Industry today said the breakdown of the talks would hurt development of free and fair international trade.

The chamber, however, hailed the failure of certain developed countries’ attempt to bring non-trade issues such as labour in the WTO fold.

The CII said that though differences of opinion exist between the developed and developing countries at the meeting, they could have been bridged amicably had there been a greater amount of mutual respect for different positions.The apex chamber said failure of the talks should catalyse greater dialogue between different countries and sensitise some developed countries to genuine issues that face developing nations.