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Clock is ticking, chief of WTO says
U.S. election curtails window for trade talks
Thursday, March 30, 2000
BLOOMBERG NEWS
BRUSSELS -- World Trade Organization Director-General Mike Moore says time is running out for re-starting global trade talks before the U.S. presidential campaign kicks into high gear in the autumn.
Moore said yesterday that there is only a "modest chance" of a new round of talks aimed at opening world markets getting under way by the start of the campaign in late August. After that, the political sensitivity of trade issues in the United States would be probably keep any progress from being made.
"I cannot say that we've seen enough dramatic change that we'll book the tickets," Moore said. "I give it a modest chance."
Attempts at sweeping liberalization fell apart in Seattle in December amid violent street protests, as developing countries from Argentina to Indonesia balked at a U.S. call for tighter labor and environmental standards and as industrial states squabbled over farm subsidies.
In the latest dispute about agriculture, WTO members last week postponed hard bargaining for subsidies until March 2001. Discussions this year will be limited to "stock taking," the U.S. said.
"The signal it sends is that self-interest, national interest is still the most powerful motivating factor," Moore said of the farm-trade impasse.
President Bill Clinton is right to give China's bid to join the WTO higher priority than the beginning of global talks, Moore said. A showdown vote in Congress is set for May.
Moore also pushed the European Union to wrap up its market-opening arrangement in talks this week in Beijing.
"The clock is ticking," he said. "It's a major move forward if a European deal is done, but that's not all there is to it."
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