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.