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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 June 1999 Issue No. 433 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 June 1999 Issue No. 433
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Living Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 'On the train to Seattle'
By Niveen WahishSir Leon Brittan, vice-president of the European Commission, was in Cairo this week to convince Egyptian officials of the importance of a new global round of trade negotiations.
The purpose of Brittan's busy one-day visit to Egypt was to discuss the new millennium trade round scheduled to begin in Seattle in late November or early December. The topics of the round and its duration remain to be decided, but, according to Brittan, it should be a comprehensive round covering all the issues that participating countries wish to raise and should last for a relatively limited period of three years. The last round of global trade negotiations, the Uruguay round, begun in 1986, lasted for around seven years.
Europe has been striving during the past three years to persuade most of the world that a new trade round is desirable. And Brittan is optimistic that Egypt will take part. According to Brittan, Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri said that "Egypt will be on the train to Seattle." Brittan recommended that if Cairo wants the train to reach the right destination, "Egypt should also provide its own distinctive idea of what it wants." He added that he looks forward to constructive participation by Egypt in the debate, which will contribute to the success of the new round.
Developing countries have been sceptical of the idea of a new round of global trade negotiations because they have largely been dissatisfied with the results of the Uruguay round. They believe that developed countries have not fulfilled their promises of granting greater market access to exports from developing countries.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Brittan acknowledged their concern, but in his opinion "the only way to put it right is through a new round of negotiations." He also assured Egypt and developing countries that they have nothing to lose by taking part in such a round because they do not have to accept anything they are not satisfied with. "Developing countries showed their muscle at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Singapore in 1995 when they prevented agreement on the declaration until it was changed to meet their needs," he noted.
Both the EU and United States believe that the new trade round should cover further liberalisation of the agricultural sector, to which the EU committed itself at the conclusion of the Uruguay round, as well as industrial tariffs and matters such as trade facilitation, competition, investment and intellectual property rights.
However, Brittan pointed out that "other people should put on the table whatever they want," stressing that participants in the round should keep in mind that "nobody can be compelled to agree to what they do not want." He invited countries to raise any issue, including for example anti-dumping issues. Developing countries believe that anti-dumping measures have been adopted extensively to limit the entry of their exports into global markets.
Brittan said the only way to have everybody satisfied is to hold a comprehensive round in which there can be the necessary trade-offs and a conclusion acceptable to everyone. "And since we can only proceed by consensus, it is necessary that everybody should be satisfied, otherwise there will not be an agreement," he said. "In the last round we agreed to a reduction of agricultural support. And this is now being implemented." He gave the example of the EU saying that it accepts the fact that in the next trade round they are committed to further reduction of agricultural support, but at no particular speed and with no set target. "How far and how fast we will go will depend on the negotiations as a whole," he said.
While underlining the need for greater liberalisations than those provided by the Uruguay round, Brittan stressed that the interests of developing countries will not be overlooked. He said, in a lecture at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, that "a new round should provide benefits to developing countries and assist the integration of those countries, particularly the least developed ones, into the multilateral trading system." He also said that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) must help establish a framework to facilitate development. For example, industrial tariff negotiations should ensure that all sectors of interest to developing countries are included.
In his opinion both the EU and the United States believe that the results of the new round should meet the legitimate aspirations of developing countries.
While Brittan's meetings with Egyptian officials centred on the new millennium round, they also dealt with the partnership agreement still under discussion. He announced that the foreign ministers of the EU last week reached an agreement to make important agricultural concessions favouring Egypt. "I understand that Egypt regards these improvements as very positive." Accordingly he is hopeful that after some minor technical discussions, which will take place in Brussels in a couple of days, both teams will be able to agree to the final text of the agreement later this month. He said "We are in the final lap. And I hope that there can be and should be a text which is agreed to by both parties."
Commenting on Egypt's decision to ban EU food exports to Egypt, Brittan said that he had spoken with the minister of trade and was assured that it was only a precautionary measure and that it would be relaxed when further information was made available.
