The view from Seattle:
(Commerce and Industry Minister’s statement in Parliament)
The Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) was held at Seattle from 30th November to 3rd December 1999. This Conference assumed
importance and attracted wide publicity and attention because of the efforts by a
significant number of Member countries to seek an endorsement from this Conference for the
proposal to launch a comprehensive round of negotiations covering a wide range of subjects
including proposal to link trade with labour issues through this Conference.
The Indian delegation was led by me. I had the privilege of having
Hon'ble Members of Parliament, Shri Biplab Dasgupta, Shri Kamal Nath and Shri K.
Yerrannaidu in the delegation. There were many demonstrations before and during the period
of Conference by several interest groups. In fact the inaugural function scheduled for the
forenoon of 30th November 1999 had to be abandoned. However, under police protection, the
Plenary Session began in the afternoon of 30th November 1999 and I made our country
statement in the Plenary Session on the evening of 30th November 1999.
As part of the consultation process, meetings of SAARC at the
official level and G-15 members at the Ministerial level were held. On the margins of the
Ministerial Conference, I held a number of bilateral meetings with the leaders of many
delegations, including those of European Commission, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Sweden,
Colombia, South Africa, Japan, China, Nepal and Bhutan.
As part of the Conference process, working groups were formed to
discuss in depth the various subjects including agriculture, market access, implementation
and other issues and arrive at consensus-based recommendations relating to negotiating
mandate or decisions as the case may be. We participated effectively in the deliberations
of all the groups and articulated our position on various issues. We effectively opposed
the inclusion of non-trade issues like labour standards in the agenda of the WTO. This was
fully in line with the Prime Minister’s statement made in Lok Sabha on December
1,1999.
As no consensus-based conclusion could be reached on most of the
issues before the Ministerial Conference, no declaration was finalised and issued. In the
light of this, the work of the Ministerial Conference has been suspended. The Chairperson
in her statement in the Closing Plenary Session indicated that the Director General, WTO
will hold consultations with Member countries and make a proposal for resuming the work of
the Ministerial Conference. The Chairperson also stated : "During this time, the
Director General can consult with delegations and discuss creative ways in which we might
bridge the remaining areas in which consensus does not yet exist, develop an improved
process which is both efficient and fully inclusive, and prepare the way for successful
conslusion. The Ministerial will then resume its work."
It is, however, expected that the mandated negotiations under the
provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture and the General Agreement on Trade in Services,
will take place as scheduled with effect from
January 1, 2000. The mandated reviews under the various WTO
Agreements, are also expected to be undertaken as per the time schedule provided under the
respective WTO Agreements.
(Text of the statement by Murasoli Maran, Minister of Commerce
and Industry in Rajya Sabha on 08/12/1999 on the 3rd Ministerial Conference of the WTO at
Seattle.)
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