The European Parliament,

-  having regard to Article 20 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, Article XIX of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Articles 23(4) and 27(3)(b) of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)(1) ,

-  having regard to its resolutions of 18 November 1999 on the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the EU approach to the WTO Millennium Round (COM(1999) 331 - C5-0155/1999 - 1999/2149(COS) )(2) and 15 December 1999 on the Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle(3) ,

-  having regard to Rule 97(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

-  having regard to the report of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy and the opinion of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (A5-0076/2001 ,

A.  whereas several WTO agreements concluded as part of the Uruguay Round require fresh negotiations to be entered into by 2000 at the latest (the "Built-in Agenda'),

B.  whereas this resolution expresses the position of Parliament with specific regard to the forthcoming WTO review of progress in the context of the “built-in agenda”,

C.  whereas, following the failure of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle in December 1999, those negotiations could not be incorporated into a fresh multilateral negotiating round,

D.  having regard to the WTO meeting, scheduled for the end of March 2001, for an interim review of the Built-in Agenda negotiations to date,

E.  whereas the European Communities" comprehensive agricultural negotiating proposal was adopted by the Council in December 2000 and submitted to the WTO (WTOG/AG/NG/W/90) for assessment by the WTO Committee on Agriculture in March 2001, and whereas it calls for a balance between trade and non-trade concerns,

F.  whereas the Agriculture Council of 27 September 1999 acknowledged the need to continue liberalising and to extend agricultural trade as a contribution to sustainable economic growth, as provided for by Article 20 of the Marrakech Agreement on Agriculture, and confirmed its resolve to continue development of the existing European model of agriculture based on multifunctionality,

G.  whereas current agricultural trade rules have given added impetus to processes leading to the pooling of land, the intensification and "verticalisation" of production and an increase in food dependence, thereby encouraging the principle of achieving the greatest yield at the lowest cost, which is responsible for the current crises in the farming sector (BSE, dioxins, slurry, etc.) and which has serious implications in terms of food safety, human health and food quality;

H.  whereas the European Communities" comprehensive negotiating proposal for the services negotiations was submitted to the WTO (WTOS/CSS/W/15) on 30 November 2000 for assessment by the WTO Services Committee in March 2001,

I.  Puts to the Commission the following recommendations:

1.  Calls on the Commission to conduct the present WTO negotiations on agricultural trade, trade in services and specific intellectual property issues on the basis of the guidelines for these areas given to it by the Council and Parliament for the Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference and the recommendations set out in this resolution;

2.  Notes the slow progress of the WTO negotiations to date on the Built-in Agenda and considers the principal cause of this to be the lack of a broad negotiating framework and the failure to build a consensus between all the WTO members.

3.  Therefore backs the Commission in its efforts to have the Built-in Agenda negotiations lead to a comprehensive, new multilateral negotiating round - which must take greater account of the requirements of sustainable development, environmental and consumer protection, the needs of the developing countries and public concerns about the world trade system - no later than at the WTO Ministerial Conference scheduled for November 2001;

Agriculture

4.  Stresses that the decisions adopted with regard to the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP) under Agenda 2000 are essential elements of the European Union's position with a view to future multilateral trade negotiations within the WTO;

5.  Stresses the need for a broad negotiating round with a view also to safeguarding the European model of agriculture and improving multilateral agreements other than the agriculture agreement, in particular the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) (concerning public health protection) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) (concerning production methods used);

6.  Regards it as essential that Article 20 of the Marrakech Agreement on Agriculture be made more forceful by expressly acknowledging non-trade considerations within the new multilateral agricultural framework which emerges from the negotiations;

7.  Insists in particular that future agreements relating to internal support, market access and export subsidies must ensure the survival of the European model of agriculture and the multifunctional role of agriculture; observes that the social, environmental and food safety dimensions of agriculture call for the presence of farmers in the countryside and for the continuation of agriculture's productive function throughout EU territory;

8.  Considers that the concepts of "blue boxes" and "green boxes" must be retained for a provisional period and stresses the importance of funding for projects which provide for a transition to sustainable, environment-friendly agriculture and animal welfare;

9.  Considers it essential for the "peace clause" and the special safeguard clause to be renewed with a view to facilitating reform of the CAP, maintaining stability within domestic agricultural markets in the face of fluctuating international prices and properly protecting the production and land use models which are characteristic of European agriculture;

10.  Calls for the agricultural negotiations and the new multilateral framework to incorporate appropriate provisions to guarantee that account is taken of the public's demands regarding food quality and safety, environmental protection and animal welfare; recalls in this connection the need to incorporate the precautionary principle into the main GATT Treaty;

11.  Calls for the introduction of flexible systems which are able to cope with negative swings in order to ensure that due account is taken of the current level of agricultural incomes and the as-yet unassessed impact of the final introduction of the euro;

12.  Considers it essential that market stability as regards domestic access be safeguarded, and takes the view that any new concessions on imports must take account of the varying sensitivity of Community products and must not do anything which might have a detrimental effect on the current situation and on production levels;

13.  Stresses the need to establish fair competition as regards food quality in order to open up the markets by eliminating distortions of competition and encouraging the preservation of traditional expertise;

14.  Takes the view that, in the WTO negotiations, the European Union must support the right of the developing countries, and in particular the least-developed countries, to take steps to guarantee their autonomy in terms of food supplies and the survival of small farmers, in particular by protecting themselves against imports likely to undermine those objectives;

15.  Believes that there is a need for new multilateral health rules providing an appropriate response to future CAP and public-health policy requirements;

16.  Points out that the decreases in intervention prices for major EU agricultural products, adopted as part of Agenda 2000, have created adequate scope for reductions in export subsidies to be implemented progressively and in accordance with a precise timetable; takes the view, however, that too little attention is paid to hidden export subsidies for agricultural products; considers it essential and urgent to revise the current framework for food aid, export credits and subsidies and state trading enterprises under the subsidised-exports section of the Agreement on Agriculture;

17.  Takes the view that domestic support measures must take account of the special position of small farms and the legitimacy of special support for goods and services of public benefit resulting from multifunctional agriculture, rendered by farmers to society at large, which the market does not reward and that the best prospect of winning support in the WTO for trade rules compatible with a multifunctional agriculture and family-based agriculture is to make clear the EU's intention, in the medium term, of moving towards a system of domestic support targeted directly at the promotion of non-trade concerns;

18.  Wishes the industrialised countries, including Japan and the United States, to fulfil, like the European Union, their undertakings made under the WTO's 1997 "action plan" and to open their markets more to agricultural products from the least developed countries, inter alia by developing the preferential trade arrangements granted to these countries;

19.  Calls for the new WTO agriculture agreement to take into account the requirements of forthcoming accessions and to enable the CAP to be adapted in keeping with an enlarged European Union;

20.  Calls for the new agriculture agreement to be compatible with special and differential treatment for the developing countries, in particular the least advanced countries;

21.  Believes that consumers must have the right to know how food and other products have been produced and that labelling is particularly important in this regard; considers that WTO rules must not unreasonably limit provisions for voluntary or obligatory labelling systems;

22.  Believes that the public is ever more concerned about the ethical implications of production methods, the protection of animal welfare or the effects of production on climate change and energy use for example, and that these should be taken on board in any review;

Services

23.  Backs the Commission in its efforts to achieve further progressive liberalisation of trade in services, within the meaning of Article XIX of GATS, in the WTO negotiations on services;

24.  Calls on the Commission to carry out an impact assessment of the effects of the new liberalisation of services under Article XIX of GATS, both for the European Union and the developing countries;

25.  Calls for GATS agreements not to be allowed to restrict the scope of the member states of the WTO to adopt rules which recognise the special character of the provision of public services within, for instance, the health, education and cultural services fields;

26.  Calls on the Commission to press its negotiating partners in the developed world for a marked reduction in most-favoured-nation exemptions, for more comprehensive compliance with resident treatment and for the opening-up of further services sectors, in particular within air and maritime transport, and to stress that these do not concern the organisation of public services in areas such as education, health, culture, local public transport and transport monitoring and safety, areas which are a matter for the WTO member states or, in so far as it is concerned, the European Union;

27.  Subject to sectoral safeguards, underscores the need for multilateral disciplines for the regulation of individual services sectors and for provisions to combat anti-competitive practices, without which, in many instances, effective access to services markets in third states is not possible;

28.  Calls in this connection for GATS rules to be supplemented by rules on subsidies, while recognising the rights of Members to use them for non-protectionist reasons of public policy, and on transparency in public procurement that are geared to the relevant GATT provisions;

29.  Calls on the Commission to ensure in the negotiations that any further liberalisation in trade in services is conditional on compatibility with the concept of sustainable development for all members of WTO and that appropriate allowance is made for developing countries" requirements;

30.  Points to the importance, for developing countries, of service supply through the presence of natural persons from the country of the supplier (supply mode 4, Article I GATS) and calls on the Commission to examine to what extent it can take account of developing countries" intentions in this area;

Protection of intellectual property

31.  Regrets the limited scope of the negotiations on protection of intellectual property under the Built-in Agenda, which, apart from questions concerning protection of geographical indications for wines and spirits and extending protection to other agricultural products, only covers plant variety safeguards;

32.  Calls for a broad review of the TRIPS agreement with a view to removing obstacles to the transfer of knowledge to developing countries, reinforcing and clarifying the provisions on access to medicines, to ensure that life-saving drugs are made as widely and cheaply available as possible in developing countries, and ensuring that WTO rules are in conformity with the Convention on Biodiversity;

33.  Insists on effective protection for geographical indications and designations of origin in respect of all agricultural and processed food products dealt with in these negotiations;

34.  Advocates the establishment of a multilateral register of geographical designations of origin within the meaning of Article 23(4) of TRIPS which, in addition to protected designations of origin, must also include the relevant national safeguards and multilateral procedures for notification and mutual recognition;

35.  Regards it as desirable to extend protection of geographical indications for wine and spirits to other agricultural products, in particular also in the interests of better marketing of such products from developing countries; believes that a reinforcement of the regulatory framework will allow diversification of production and consumer protection;

36.  Calls on the Commission to be vigilant, in the negotiations on specific plant variety safeguards and other rights pursuant to Article 27(3)(b) of TRIPS, as to the compatibility of WTO rules with the provisions of the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity and, in the process, take account of the special interests of developing countries in their biological heritage and the interests of indigenous communities; therefore calls for the negotiations to review the content of this Article as demanded by various blocs of developing countries (notably Brazil, India and the African nations);

37.  Calls on the European Union to defend the principles laid down in the 1992 convention on biodiversity and the FAO's international undertaking on plant genetic resources and supports the ban on the patenting of animals, plants, micro-organisms and biological and microbiological processes;

38.  Calls for such intellectual property protection to be allowed only if it involves an invention of an innovative nature for industrial application, if access to the original genetic material is gained lawfully with the informed consent of the donor or custodian of the resource, and if the economic benefit is equitably shared between such donors or custodians and the party wishing to commercialise the material in accordance with the principles of Article 8(j) of the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity;

39.  Takes the view that the ongoing negotiations concerning the TRIPS agreement should strengthen the provisions for the local production and marketing of drugs where there is an overriding national or supranational interest in the prevention or alleviation of epidemic disease (such as HIV/AIDS);

Institutional aspects

40.  Expects the WTO interim review to stimulate faster progress in the Built-in Agenda negotiations;

41.  Calls on the Commission to use these on-going negotiations to improve consensus-building amongst all WTO members and capacity-building for the less well-resourced members and to work towards a broad consensus for a new multilateral WTO negotiating round to be decided at the forthcoming WTO Ministerial Conference in November 2001;

42.  Calls on the Commission in this connection to step up its efforts to improve the WTO's internal transparency, on the basis of its proposals for more transparency in the world trading system, in order better to involve the developing countries, in particular, in the work of the WTO; points out that particular attention must be given to greater transparency in the preparation and conduct of Ministerial meetings, to the composition, procedures and reporting mechanisms in respect of informal discussions and to the frequency and timing of formal WTO meetings;

43.  Advocates, in the interests of increasing the WTO's internal transparency, improving the process of preparing ministerial conferences and reinforcing the role of the Director-General, which must nevertheless remain compatible with the principles of an international organisation governed by its members;

44.  Advocates establishing democratic oversight over the WTO by improving its internal modes of operation in order to allow real participation in decision-making by the developing countries, and by creating mechanisms for cooperation and participation by civil society; advocates in addition stronger parliamentary scrutiny of the WTO, both through capacity-building measures to assist national parliaments in developing countries to discharge effectively their role of parliamentary oversight in trade matters, and through the creation of a parliamentary dimension to the WTO itself;

45.  Takes the view that an improvement in the external transparency of the WTO will be achieved through cooperation with other international organisations on subjects of common interest and through greater involvement of NGOs in its work;

46.  Insists also on the need for determined measures to open up the WTO to a wider public, for example by a more radical and faster derestriction of documents; the publication of disputes panel submissions on the Internet; the admission of views from non-governmental stakeholders by disputes panels; the web-casting of, for instance, panel hearings and trade-policy reviews; closer dialogue with NGOs through symposia and accreditation of observers to WTO meetings; calls on the Commission and Council to conclude with the European Parliament an interinstitutional agreement setting out procedures for consultation in relation to WTO negotiations and disputes panels;

II.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, and for information, to the Council.

(1) OJ L 336, 23.12.1994. (2) OJ C 189, 7.7.2000, p. 213. (3) OJ C 296, 18.10.2000, p. 121.