US embassy cable - 05GENEVA2715

UNCLAS GENEVA 002715 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PASS USTR FOR ALLGEIER AND DWOSKIN 
EB/OT FOR CRAFT 
USDA FOR FAS/ITP/SHEIKH, MTND/YOUNG 
USDOC FOR ITA/JACOBS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, WTRO, USTR, Trade 
SUBJECT: WTO HEADS OF DELEGATION MEETING - NOVEMBER 3, 2005 
 
1.  WTO Director-General Lamy convened a short heads of 
delegation meeting on the morning of November 3 to discuss 
next steps for the Doha Development Agenda.  His main point 
was that the time has come to emphasize the "horizontality" of 
the negotiations and to begin the process of transitioning 
from a vertical subject approach to a more integrated approach 
so a comprehensive text can be presented to ministers by the 
upcoming Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong.  Lamy said he 
would be starting an intensive consultative process with the 
objective of reaching such a text by the middle of November so 
all delegations have time to prepare their capitals, and he 
asked Members to be on call for these consultations. 
 
2.  In a short "diagnosis" of the issues, Lamy highlighted two 
issues.  First, he saw the need for greater convergence on 
agricultural market access, adding that while further movement 
on agriculture is necessary it is also not sufficient - for 
success, Members must start to move across the board, he 
emphasized.  Second, on NAMA, he warned that divergences are 
still wide and big political decisions are needed with respect 
to the number of coefficients in the formula as well as 
flexibilities.  On other issues, he tended to be more 
positive: 
 
- on rules and services, he reported progress and said chairs 
are working on texts; 
 
- on special and differential treatment, he felt a package is 
within reach and he urged Members to show more flexibility; 
 
- on trade facilitation, he reported "good news" that a draft 
report seems close to being finalized; but 
 
- on TRIPS, trade and the environment, and the DSU he reported 
there is still a way to go before an outcome for Hong Kong can 
be determined. 
 
3.  Only a few Members made statements.  Venezuela supported 
by Cuba and Botswana complained about the discretion chairs 
have in preparing texts, with Venezuela saying the focus 
should be on participation and arguing that brackets are a 
good way to reflect Member views.  Lamy responded that the 
emphasis would be on consensus, transparency, and the bottom- 
up nature of the negotiations, but he said a number of tools 
are available in balancing transparency and efficiency and he 
recalled a previous experience in which a cumbersome 
declaration full of bracketed text (the draft declaration 
prepared for the 1999 Ministerial Conference in Seattle) 
proved to be failure. 
 
4.  Lamy concluded the meeting by saying he planned to convene 
another heads of delegation meeting after November 9 to build 
on ministerial consultations and take stock of preparations 
for Hong Kong.  Allgeier