WTO Public Forum - Morning of Day 1

Yesterday, Canadian Ambassador John Gero kicked off the first day of the WTO Public Forum by hosting a breakfast at the Canadian Mission in Geneva. Amongst those present were academics, students studying in Geneva and a large contingent of Canadian agricultural groups. As part of the breakfast, Ambassador Gero took the time to sit down with the group and talk about the current state of trade negotiations at the WTO and the Doha Round.

Ambassador Gero discussed the recent financial crisis and the fact that global trade has picked up very rapidly since last year, much to the surprise of many trade experts, noting that much of the credit for this credit has been given to the work of the WTO. He was very positive about the WTO system, despite the stalled Doha Round, stating that “the WTO is not dead.”

He did address the Doha Round, calling it a “hesitant” period due to the concerns at the domestic level for various member groups, especially Brazil and the United States, who are currently in the middle of elections at different levels. He also mentioned the pressure from world leaders to get the current Round back on track by pointing to the new G5 “small group” Ambassador sessions, addressing each of the issues, as well as the urging by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy to World Leaders. It is expected that this will be revisited at the next G20 meeting this November in Seoul, Korea.

Ambassador Gero finished off by stating that there is an obvious desire to get a wave of action for the Doha Round restarted, however that timelines are not a concern right now. He also addressed concerns over how WTO negotiations and bilateral trade negotiations affect each other, saying that there are obvious linkages and that they can complement each other.



WTO Headquarters



Following that, the Canadian delegation headed over to the WTO Headquarters, where Director General Lamy opened the Public Forum with his introductory remarks.

Lamy also spoke very positively about the strong role of the WTO as a relative shelter from the storm during the financial crisis, especially in protecting developing countries from being devastated by loss in trade. He focused on the new shaping forces of International Trade, pointing to the linkages between climate change, food security, human rights and trade.

He highlighted that many of the “battle lines” are still being drawn by individual nation states, especially in regards to certain negotiations such as agriculture.

Lamy’s main message of the session was, that there are bigger battles to be fought at the WTO aside from negotiations in trade, and that members cannot afford to sit back and allow for the rights of the poor and unequal to be pushed aside, especially given the rise of products which are “Made in the World”; that is to say with raw materials from one nation, manufacturing in another and finally sold in yet another. He finished off his remarks by stating that while the current impasse in negotiations should not be seen as an “institutional” problem, there is a need to rebalance the rules to address future issues and the needs of vulnerable populations.