WTO HEADS OF DELEGATION MEETING - NOVEMBER 3, 2005

UNCLAS GENEVA 002715 SIPDIS PASS USTR FOR ALLGEIER AND DWOSKIN EB/OT FOR CRAFT USDA FOR FAS/ITP/SHEIKH, MTND/YOUNG USDOC FOR ITA/JACOBS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD WTRO USTR SUBJECT: WTO HEADS OF DELEGATION MEETING - NOVEMBER 3, 2005 ¶1. WTO Director-General Lamy convened a short heads of delegation meeting on the morning of November 3 to discuss next steps for the Doha Development Agenda. His main point was that the time has come to emphasize the "horizontality" of the negotiations and to begin the process of transitioning from a vertical subject approach to a more integrated approach so a comprehensive text can be presented to ministers by the upcoming Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. Lamy said he would be starting an intensive consultative process with the objective of reaching such a text by the middle of November so all delegations have time to prepare their capitals, and he asked Members to be on call for these consultations. ¶2. In a short "diagnosis" of the issues, Lamy highlighted two issues. First, he saw the need for greater convergence on agricultural market access, adding that while further movement on agriculture is necessary it is also not sufficient - for success, Members must start to move across the board, he emphasized. Second, on NAMA, he warned that divergences are still wide and big political decisions are needed with respect to the number of coefficients in the formula as well as flexibilities. On other issues, he tended to be more positive: - on rules and services, he reported progress and said chairs are working on texts; - on special and differential treatment, he felt a package is within reach and he urged Members to show more flexibility; - on trade facilitation, he reported "good news" that a draft report seems close to being finalized; but - on TRIPS, trade and the environment, and the DSU he reported there is still a way to go before an outcome for Hong Kong can be determined. ¶3. Only a few Members made statements. Venezuela supported by Cuba and Botswana complained about the discretion chairs have in preparing texts, with Venezuela saying the focus should be on participation and arguing that brackets are a good way to reflect Member views. Lamy responded that the emphasis would be on consensus, transparency, and the bottom- up nature of the negotiations, but he said a number of tools are available in balancing transparency and efficiency and he recalled a previous experience in which a cumbersome declaration full of bracketed text (the draft declaration prepared for the 1999 Ministerial Conference in Seattle) proved to be failure. ¶4. Lamy concluded the meeting by saying he planned to convene another heads of delegation meeting after November 9 to build on ministerial consultations and take stock of preparations for Hong Kong. Allgeier