IGCs: WTO

The EU, is not the only international organisation to be afflicted with IGCitis. The World Trade Organisation, only a few years after the ending of the Uruguay Round and its massive injection into world trade of major new economic laws and judicial procedures, is about to start a new round at the forthcoming Seattle ministerial conference (30 November – 3 December). While the main theme of what is now being called the “Millennium Round” will be the freeing of international trade in agricultural goods, it is unlikely that nothing more will be considered (some 120 documents have been submitted for consideration at Seattle). Apart from classic free trade issues (tariffs and subsidies), which call into question the fundamentals of the EU’s CAP, topics so far raised include the restriction of state trading enterprises, animal welfare, health, GMOs, environmental protection and food labelling (appellations d’origine).

Non-agricultural topics include services, investment protection, multilateral rules on competition, simplification of product standards’ rules to eliminate barriers to trade, and minimum labour standards. The document prepared by the EC Commission last July for the Council also envisages intellectual property rights, anti-dumping measures, electronic commerce and the acceptance by the WTO of representations by the general public.