30/7/2004
EU committed to progress in WTO negotiations

EU Foreign Ministers meeting this week in Brussels have sent a strong message of the EU's commitment to conclude a framework commitment in the on-going WTO negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) by the end of July.

Speaking from Brussels EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said: “The message coming out of Brussels today is loud and clear: the EU is working full steam ahead to make the WTO talks in Geneva a success. Be it agriculture, industrial tariffs, services or development issues, we want results which are both balanced and ambitious. In the days to come we will negotiate constructively. But it is not only up to the EU to make the running. Now it is also up to others to finally show the colour of their money.”

The text of the Conclusions of the General Affairs and External Relations Council in detail:

The Council held an extensive discussion on the state of play of the WTO Doha negotiations on the basis of a presentation by Commissioner Lamy. The Council confirmed the Union's commitment for an agreement on a balanced framework agreement on future DDA negotiations. The Council endorsed the approach proposed by the Commission for the negotiations in Geneva this week and underlined the need, in particular, to improve the balance of the texts presented by the Chairman of the WTO General Council on several important aspects and that the outcome of the July negotiations should maintain the momentum of the DDA without prejudging the Community position on the final outcome of the negotiations.

The Community approach to the DDA negotiations remains that set out in successive Council Conclusions as from October 1999, 28 June 2003 and most recently those of 8 December 2003 endorsing the Communication “Reviving the DDA – the EU perspective”, and the Presidency's conclusions of 12 July 2004.

The Council invites the Commission to pursue negotiations in the coming days in accordance with these conclusions in close consultation with the Article 133 Committee, noting that meetings of the 133 Committee will be held regularly in Geneva for this purpose. The Council further invites the Commission to report back to the Council later this week as decided by the Council.”