-Caveat Lector- Subj: Conflicts Hindering WTO Efforts Date: 8/17/99 11:09:34 PM Central Daylight Time From: AOL News BCC: Ahab42 Conflicts Hindering WTO Efforts .c The Associated Press By NAOMI KOPPEL GENEVA (AP) - Trade negotiators are preparing to launch new efforts to steer the global economy into the new millennium. But as the countdown to the launch begins, they can't even agree on a name for the talks, let alone what they should cover. The 134-nation World Trade Organization has spent the past year discussing the agenda for a ministerial meeting in Seattle beginning Nov. 30. The meeting should kickstart negotiations aimed at rolling back barriers to exports and thus - in theory - boosting international prosperity. But so far there have been few results. And when WTO diplomats return from their leisurely summer break, the tough task of whittling down more than 80 proposals into a feasible work schedule will begin in earnest. Mike Moore, New Zealand's former premier who takes up his post as WTO director-general Sept. 1, is under no illusions about the enormity of the task. ``This is the 1990s and there are new issues which have exploded which we have never thought of,'' he said. In the previous round of trade talks, nobody knew about electronic commerce, ``but now business in the Internet is doubling every hundred days,'' he said. ``Six months ago none of us really thought about genetically modified foods. These are the major issues,'' added Moore. Several thousand people are expected in Seattle for the conference, the WTO's third since it was set up in 1995. The four-day session is shaping up as a showdown between competing regional and economic interests. The joke that the negotiators will be ``sleepless in Seattle'' has been told hundreds of times already. Under the agreements reached in the last trade talks, known as the Uruguay Round, the WTO is committed to making a new effort in the year 2000 to open trade in services and agriculture. But there is nothing to stop the Seattle conference from taking on other areas as well. Developing countries including Pakistan and Mexico are insisting that the meeting should focus on compliance with the Uruguay Round accords rather than tackling new areas. In particular, they accuse industrialized countries of violating promises to import more textiles and clothing. The European Union, on the other hand, wants to see talks across the full spectrum of international trade. Critics say this is merely a ruse to deflect attention from agriculture, where the EU's protectionist policies are expected to come under threat. The United States wants to discuss labor standards. ``As President Clinton has stated, the development of the trading system must come together with efforts to ensure respect for these standards, and its results must include benefits for working people in all nations,'' U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Susan Esserman told a recent meeting of the WTO general council. That is anathema to the developing nations, who do not believe labor standards should be part of international trade agreements. They feel it is a form of protectionism, aimed at making poorer countries less competitive. The United States is also resisting any suggestion that antidumping regulations should be included. Washington has used its regulations, which allow higher tariffs for U.S. industries threatened by imports, to provide relief for domestic steelmakers in the wake of the Asian currency crisis, provoking angry opposition from countries such as Japan. In addition to the looming rows between governments, the WTO also has to come to grips with other pressures. Nongovernmental organizations are pressing their case for a bigger say in the organization's policymaking, and thousands of anti-WTO campaigners are also planning to descend on Seattle. And if that's not enough, negotiators will have to face the tricky problem of what to call the new trade round. There have been vague suggestions that it should be the ``Clinton Round,'' but these aren't taken too seriously. There is more acceptance of the idea of a ``Millennium Round.'' This has alarmed the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, which has launched a campaign to make sure the official name is the ``Seattle Round.'' AP-NY-08-18-99 0008EDT Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. 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