Singapore sticks to its stance on WTO agenda

Singapore sticks to its stance on WTO agenda

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore warned Saturday against including
irrelevant issues on the agenda of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) meeting here in December and expressed confidence that a
compromise will be struck ahead of the conference.

Trade Minister Yeo Cheow Tong said he believed disputes over
the proposed inclusion of such issues as labor standards,
government procurements and investment rules would be resolved in
talks at WTO headquarters in Geneva before the Singapore meeting.

"I'm quite confident that ministers, being the ultimate
persons where the buck has to stop, will, faced with a situation,
sit down and work out a compromise," Yeo told journalists.

"But we hope that most of the difficult decisions will already
have been negotiated in Geneva," he said, although "there may be
some elements left which may have to be worked out in Singapore."

Yeo emphasized that three criteria must be met before allowing
new issues on the Singapore agenda: "Is the issue relevant to
trade? Is the WTO the most appropriate forum to deal with the
issue? Is the issue ripe for discussions?"

"The key word is relevance," Yeo said, stressing that the WTO
and its first ministerial conference "should not be distracted
from its core activities by considering issues that are not
relevant to trade."

Yeo declined to say which of the so-called "new issues" being
pushed by the United States and other western nations, and
opposed largely by developing countries, were the most difficult
to tackle.

Some countries are pressing for the WTO's Dec. 9-13 meeting to
take up investment rules, labor and environmental standards,
government procurements and corruption as issues which affect
trade.

But Asian and other developing countries fear that bringing in
such issues could result in new forms of protectionism, such as
demands for them to raise workers' wages or comply with tough
environmental standards for their exports.

Yeo said some countries felt that new issues could sidetrack
the WTO from its main task of ensuring that members implement the
1994 global trade pact forged in Marrakesh after eight years of
the "Uruguay Round" of trade negotiations.

He cited estimates that the world economy stands to gain an
additional $510 billion by 2005 if the Uruguay Round agreements
are implemented fully.

"This will make a major impact on global prosperity and the
people's standard of living," Yeo said.

Fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) have openly criticized attempts by the United States and
European nations to introduce new issues but Singapore has stayed
above the fray.

"As chair of the WTO, Singapore would have to bridge these
differences in a balanced, objective and neutral manner," Yeo
said.

Yeo said 5,000 delegates from 150 countries were expected to
attend the Singapore meeting, the largest international gathering
ever hosted by this trade-powered city-state of three million
people.

European Union trade ministers meeting in Dublin on Thursday
set out modest goals for the Singapore meeting, agreeing to
concentrate on consolidation of existing agreements rather than
seeking to step up the pace of liberalization.

In a statement, they identified full implementation of the
Uruguay Round accords and a WTO work program centered on the
creation of global rules governing investment and competition as
key EU priorities for the conference.

The EU's stance remains to be finalized by foreign ministers
at talks in October and November.