5. Conference in Doha

After five days of intense negotiations, on 14 November 2001, trade ministers of the Members of the World Trade Organisation reached agreement in Doha, Quatar, on the launch of a new round of global trade talks. The 4th WTO Ministerial Conference paved the way for substantive discussions, over the next three years, with a view to further liberalise world trade and strengthen the rules-based trade system. These negotiations will restore business confidence in world trade and, most importantly, benefit developing countries by addressing their interests and concerns. The success of Doha is also a result of increased co-operation between the EU and the US in the preparation of the Ministerial Conference. The bilateral commitment to the launch of a new round was lastly confirmed at the EU-US Summit in Göteborg on 14 June 2001 where leaders agreed on the priority of ‘reaching agreement on the scope of the new round and working together to solicit support for the agreement in the run-up to the 4th WTO Ministerial in Doha’. Although the two sides did not always agree on every detail, the co-operative spirit in which the EU and the US worked hard to prepare this Ministerial made it possible overcome the majority of the differences beforehand and to concentrate in Doha on a few, but important, numbers of issues. The final texts of the Declaration and decisions adopted at Doha were welcomed by both sides. In addition to further market liberalisation in the areas of goods and services, including trade facilitation, negotiations will also address new areas, such as trade and environment, trade and development, competition and investment issues, in parallel to strengthening and improving the existing rules. A separate declaration addresses the solution to the tension between public health objectives and interests of private companies, notably in the area of patent protection for pharmaceutical products.

6. EU-US Trade Disputes, old and new

Dispute settlement activities with the US continue to represent the vast majority of the EC’s overall WTO dispute settlement activities. Regarding the substance of the EC’s offensive cases with the US, a majority of them concerns the misuse by the US of trade defence instruments (anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguards) as well as subsidy related issues. Another important category in these disputes relates to intellectual property rights (trademarks, copyrights and patents). Finally, the carousel case demonstrates the permanent risk of unilateral action from the part of the US. In terms of economic sectors covered, it should be noted that almost half of the EC’s offensive cases relate to the steel sector.