Denis Foley
Question:47 Mr. Foley asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade the outcome of the meeting of EU Trade Ministers in September 1996; and the expected benefits which will accrue to Irish exporters. [18748/96]
Written Answers. - EU Trade Ministers Meeting.
The purpose of the informal meeting of EU Trade Ministers, which I hosted in Dublin Castle on 18 and 19 September, was to advance the preparation of the EU's position for the first ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Commission Vice-President Sir Leon Britain and I will represent the EU at the conference, which will be held in Singapore in December next. There was a full and open discussion among Ministers and Commission Vice-President Brittan, based on a Presidency paper which I had circulated in advance. This paper focused on the key issues on which the EU will need to take a position at the Singapore conference. At the end of the informal meeting, we had already agreed on key EU priorities for the Singapore conference: a full, timely and comprehensive implementation of the Uruguay round as an essential bedrock of the WTO system, including the completion of the unfinished services negotiations; the full respect of the built-in agenda of the Marrakech agreements as the core of a comprehensive 1997/98 work programme for the future activities of the WTO; the definition of concrete actions in order to underpin the involvement in and commitment to the WTO system of developing countries, in particular the least developed countries; the necessity to ensure the strict compliance of regional integration initiatives with the multilateral trading system as a means to ensure their complementarity; the support for the accession of new members to the WTO in accordance with its rules and on the basis of significant liberalisation commitments by the applicant countries; a better integration of environmental concerns into the WTO rules, and the need for the WTO to broaden at Singapore its work programme to adapt itself to new realities of the world economy in particular on investment and competition. We also discussed trade and labour standards and agreed that discussion will continue in the Community framework.
I also circulated to my colleagues a "non-paper" suggesting more detailed guidelines for the EU position at the Singapore conference and which took account of their comments during the Dublin meeting. This "non-paper" is currently being discussed at official level within the EU and is expected to form the basis of a document to be approved by the General Affairs Council at the end of October.
The meeting was very successful in advancing the preparation of the EU position for the WTO conference. I am satisfied that the EU can continue to play a leading role in the lead-up to the conference and at the conference itself. It is important for the EU — the world's largest trading bloc — that the Singapore conference carry out a full review of the implementation of the agreements reached during the Uruguay round of trade negotiations and agree on a work-programme for the organisation for the next two years which will carry forward the process of multilateral trade liberalisation.
For a small country like Ireland, which is so dependent on international trade, it is vitally important that our exporters have guaranteed access to markets on the basis provided by the WTO's rules. The lowering of tariffs agreed during the Uruguay round, and the further liberalisation measures being developed within the WTO, will assist our exporters to consolidate their existing markets and extend into new markets. The informal meeting of Trade Ministers has helped ensure that the Singapore conference will carry forward the WTO's work in these areas which are of such vital interest to this country.