The World Trade Organization (WTO)

The People's Republic of China became a member of the WTO on December 11, and the accession of Taiwan on 1 January 2002 brought the total membership to 144. Another 27 applications for membership, including those from the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yugoslavia, were being processed at the end of the year. None of the Least Developed Countries has managed to enter the WTO since its foundation in 1995.

After the failure of the Third WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle in 1999, the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha (Qatar) on 9-14 November 2001 agreed to launch a new multilateral Millennium Round of negotiations that would meet the demands of the developing countries for more development-friendly trade regulations. Progress will be assessed at the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Mexico in 2003.

Negotiating proposals for agriculture were to be ready by March 2002. These include issues of importance to the EU and Austria, amongst them non-trade concerns like rural development, food safety and the interests of the developing countries like food security. The differences between the EU and the very liberal Cairns Group were bridged in Doha by agreeing that none of the controversial issues in the agricultural sector would be excluded from the talks. The final date for the Millennium Round, 1 January 2005, is also the target date for the hitherto separate agricultural negotiations, which makes them an integral part of the new global round. The negotiating framework for services was finalised as planned in March 2001. First requests are to be submitted by June 2002 and offers by March 2003.

The Doha Ministerial Declaration underlined the importance of trade and environment, a priority issue for Austria and the EU. The determination of levels of environmental protection remains with individual member states. Discussions on clarifying the relationship between the various multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and the WTO, and on improving market access for environmentally friendly goods and services, were agreed upon. The Committee on Trade and Environment is to examine the effects of environmental measures on market access, the environment-related aspects of intellectual property rights, and environmental labelling. Sustainable development will be a horizontal theme during the negotiations on the Millennium Round.

The developing country waivers from the agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) expired at the end of 1999 so that the countries concerned feared the loss of their access to pharmaceutical products at reasonable prices. Therefore, in Doha they were granted wider scope to interpret the agreement in order to give them easier access without infringing patent rights. There was also movement in the hitherto blocked discussions on a multilateral register of geographical indications for wines and spirits, which are now due to be concluded by the next conference. The extension of the coverage of that agreement to products other than wines and spirits will also be discussed. The relationship between the TRIPs agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity is to be examined, as is the protection of local traditional knowledge, for example on the therapeutic properties of indigenous plants.

The target date of May 2003 was set for the review of the WTO dispute settlement understanding that was started in 1998. The system has been very popular, with over 240 cases having been raised since 1995. The most important complaints raised by the EU are against the United States in respect of protectionist measures against European steel producers and also supplementary legislation on dumping and subsidies. The EU was successful with its complaints against the US anti-dumping and copyright acts as well as the so-called Foreign Sales Corporations Act. As regards the two cases the EU lost in 1999, its import regulations for bananas were altered in December 2001 after agreement with the US in April, but it refused to revoke its ban on the import of hormone-treated US beef into Europe after scientific evidence was produced regarding the health dangers from one of the hormones in question.

There was also agreement on the controversial "ACP Waiver" on exceptions to the WTO rules for the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific states. The EU concessions granted under the agreement, for instance on banana imports, were thereby given legal approval by the WTO.

The interests of the EU member states are represented at the WTO by the European Commission, which has exclusive competence on most foreign trade matters. A Council committee set up under Article 133 of the EU Treaty to support the Commission coordinates the European positions on WTO issues. It consists of representatives of the member states and meets in Brussels and also in Geneva under the chairmanship of the presidency for the time being.