US SECRETARY OF COMMERCE EVANS MAKES A THREAT
American resolve to conclude the new WTO round has already come into question as a result of a November 8 interview given by US Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans. As reported by BusinessWeek Online, November 21 2001, correspondent Paul Magnusson asked the Secretary what would the US do if the Doha round of talks were to stall on the road to the Fifth Ministerial Conference.
Secretary Evans responded by saying,
We'd redirect our attention to regional agreements. We've got a global economy becoming more interconnected every day, and we have to have standards that apply to that global economy. These are negotiations that take years, not months. Then you have to get them signed and ratified -- and then have to get them implemented.
We are in a unique period. The Cold War is over. Information technology is real. It seems to me this world is ready and positioned to rapidly increase trade, and it's important to help shape the environment and the framework for that to happen. It's important for these governments to understand that they don't create wealth. What the governments are supposed to do it is to create the environment in which the workers and the entrepreneurs can create wealth.
Threatening to redirect US attention to regional agreements is perhaps the kind of lukewarm endorsement of the WTO process that continues to hamper President Bush's quest for Fast Track Authority from the US Congress. Many things have changed in the trading system, but US leadership of the liberalisation process is still essential for genuine progress to occur.
ISSN 1492-7187, TRADE POLICY MONITOR, November 2001,
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