Tentative Draft, October 7, 2003 Not for citation or quotation REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE WTO: GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND NAFTA LESSONS FOR ASIA

1 The fifth WTO ministerial conference held at Cancun in mid-September 2003 was intended to define more precisely the negotiating parameters for the Doha Development Agenda, the round of negotiations launched at the fourth WTO ministerial conference held in Doha in November 2001. The meeting was terminated following an inability to reach consensus on whether to start negotiations on the so-called Singapore issues – competition, investment, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement. A decision to start such negotiations at Cancun had been taken at Doha, subject to agreement on modalities at Cancun, but the disagreement at Cancun seemed to involve more fundamental issues than modalities. There was also broad disagreement over the basis for proceeding with negotiations on agricultural issues, which could well have led to a breakdown at Cancun even if the Singapore issues had been dealt with satisfactorily. A meeting at the senior officials level is to be held in Geneva before mid-December “to take the action necessary at that stage to enable use to move towards a successful and timely conclusion of the negotiations”. WT/MIN(03)/20. It is generally expected that not much progress will be made, and that the target for concluding negotiations by the end of 2004 will not be met. 2 Robert Zoellick, Op-ed: America will not wait for the won’t-do countries, The Financial Times, Sept. 22, 2003.