The Commission expressed its extreme disappointment at the failure of the Cancún conference and its serious concern about the consequences of this failure, in particular:
- the missed opportunity to send a confidence-boosting signal to a world economy characterized by uncertain prospects;
- the damage to the credibility and effectiveness of the WTO as an institution;
- the risk that WTO members will now turn their attention away from the WTO and multilateral trade liberalization, towards bilateral and regional trade initiatives; and
- the prospect of an increase in trade disputes resulting from the expiration of the "agriculture peace clause", given the lack of progress in the negotiations on agriculture.
World business, as represented by ICC, strongly believes that strengthening the rules-based multilateral trading system embodied by the WTO is the best way to liberalize trade and investment.
ICC therefore strongly urges all WTO members, between now and the WTO General Council meeting to be convened before 15 December 2003, to reaffirm their support for the multilateral trading system in a concrete way by promptly returning to the negotiating table in Geneva with constructive and practical proposals.
It is incumbent upon all WTO members to ensure that a positive momentum is regained over the next couple of months, so that the Doha round can be put back on a solid footing.
For this to happen, all WTO members must abandon rhetoric and entrenched positions, and reconvene in Geneva in a spirit of flexibility and compromise, backed by leadership and political will at the highest levels.
Given the vital role that the Doha round can play in boosting global economic growth and the welfare of consumers worldwide, ICC will expect nothing less.
Note: to complement the above, the attached annex provides more detailed views to WTO members in the lead-up to the December 2003 General Council meeting.