[autom.vertaling] De EU, de V.S. en Canada leggen document over WTO onderhandelingen over niet-landbouwkundige markttoegang voor (en)

The EU and the US, joined by Canada, have tabled in the WTO a joint paper to facilitate negotiations on market access tariffs and non-tariff barriers for industrial goods. The paper proposes that WTO Members agree on the use of a single mathematical formula to reduce all tariff rates, simple to apply and to understand, geared to producing ambitious tariff cuts and to reduce differences in tariff rates across WTO Members (in the WTO jargon "a simple, single, ambitious, harmonising formula"). This approach includes measures for granting developing countries special and differential treatment, as well as flexibility to manage their tariffs on the basis of their economic needs. In particular, the joint paper proposes a system of "credits" that allows developing countries to cut their tariff less than developed countries would do, when justified by their economic situation. Additional flexibility should also be granted to the poorest developing countries.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said: "Better access to foreign markets is crucial to all trading nations and is crucial to development: that is why market access negotiations will be a key issues to making the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun a success. With this paper the EU and the US intend to live up to their responsibilities as the world's largest trading entities and I am very pleased to see that Canada has immediately joined us in this effort. The paper marries the drive for an ambitious outcome in terms of market opening by all WTO Members with the flexibility and the special and differential treatment that developing countries require to fully benefit from international trade."

The basic approach to cutting tariffs through a mathematical formula would be complemented by negotiations on certain sectors, in particular when justified by developmental reasons (for instance, deeper cuts and downward harmonisation of tariffs for the textiles and clothing sector, which is crucial to many developing countries) or environmental reasons (for instance, elimination of tariffs on environmental goods). Finally, the paper supports the approach that the Chairman of the Negotiating Group is following to identify non-tariff barriers that could still frustrate market opening, and negotiate their elimination.

The approach proposed in the joint paper is simple and equitable and lives up to all the objectives of the Doha mandate in a clear and straightforward manner, so that each WTO Member has a clear view of what it can get through the negotiations and of the level of effort it would be expected to make in return. Thus, it is a sound basis for continuing the negotiations on market access.

The EU, the US and Canada are pursuing genuine trade liberalisation on all products and by all WTO Members. This is in the interest of both those WTO Members who are already trading intensely, but also of those developing countries that need to better their trade performance as a component of their development. In this respect both better access to the markets of developed countries and fewer barriers to South-South trade are necessary. The paper also calls on WTO Members to bear in mind the difficulties that some developing countries would face because the tariff preferences they currently enjoy in the EU, the US, Canada and other developed countries would be eroded by tariff liberalisation: in particular, the paper encourages the World Bank and the IMF to address the adjustment problems of these countries.

The joint paper was given to the Chair of the WTO Negotiating Group on Market Access, Ambassador Girard of Switzerland, and to the Chair of the WTO General Council, Ambassador Perez del Castillo of Uruguay, who is working to cobble together a draft text for the Cancun Ministerial meeting, as a contribution from the EU, the US and Canada to their efforts and as a means to facilitate the discussions in Cancun. The paper builds on the progress made in the Negotiating Group on Market Access under the able chairmanship of Ambassador Girard and in particular on the wide consensus that tariff reductions must concern all products and all WTO Members.

For more information on Cancun :

http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/newround/doha_da/cancun/index_en.htm

For more information on EU/US relations:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/countries/usa/index_en.htm

For more information on EU/Canada relations:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/countries/canada/index_en.htm