NAMA to aims to complete modalities by June 16, 2006
04 May '06
6 min read
With WTO Members far from consensus on the central issues in the ongoing talks on non-agricultural market access (NAMA), the chair of the negotiating group last week laid out a timetable for "intensive and continuous" work through 16 June aiming to culminate in full modalities - an agreement with specific figures for tariff cuts and the extent of flexible treatment for developing countries.
The plan was part of the progress report (TN/MA/18) that Ambassador Don Stephenson (Canada) circulated to delegations on 26 April. "These negotiations are in trouble," Ambassador Don Stephenson (Canada) told delegations at a meeting to discuss the report the following day. "The next few weeks are our last chance." Several Members concurred, expressing broad support for his report.
Stephenson's plan would have Members focus primarily on technical issues through much of May, and only then turn to the core aspects of the tariff reduction formula, flexibilities for developing countries to partially or completely shield some products from tariff cuts, and the treatment of unbound tariff lines. This was necessary in part, he argued, because of the utter lack of progress in recent discussions on these ambition-defining core modalities (see BRIDGES Weekly, 26 April 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/06-04-26/story4.htm). Furthermore, "the issue of ambition in NAMA will only be resolved when the same question is determined in the agriculture negotiations," making a NAMA deal unlikely before then.
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