This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.
JOINT DECLARATION
BY PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON AND
EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT ROMANO PRODI
President Clinton and President Prodi held a wide-ranging
discussion on 27 October about the prospects for launching a new Round
of trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) next month
at Seattle. There was an essential overlap of interests and a desire to
collaborate closely to bridge remaining differences.
They recalled the EU-U.S. Bonn Declaration of June 1999, where we
agreed that "Together we can advance our shared values, our common
security and our mutual prosperity more effectively than either of us
alone. Together ...we can face ... the complexity of ensuring that
democracy and free markets improve tangibly the lives of people in a
rapidly globalizing world."
Mindful of the essential role played by the multilateral trading
system in supporting over the last 50 years the greatest economic
expansion in history and more recently in containing the adverse impacts
of economic downturns in Asia and elsewhere, the two leaders agreed to
strive to secure agreement in Seattle to launch a new Round of global
trade negotiations.
Their discussions concentrated on the possible topics for a new
Round and how to provide momentum for a successful launch at Seattle.
Not only agriculture and services, but a number of other issues need to
be included, to meet the U.S. and EU's respective interests and those of
our partners, but also to ensure that the WTO continues to be a leading
part of the solution to the problems that will confront the global
economy in the next century. In this respect, they discussed topics
such as comprehensive market access; greater coherence in international
economic policy making to complement and enhance the work underway in
the Bretton Woods institutions and other UN agencies; government
procurement (including transparency and market access); foreign direct
investment; electronic commerce (including extension of the moratorium
agreed last May); competition; trade facilitation; trade-related
intellectual property rights protection (TRIPS); technical barriers to
trade; and the issue of early agreements, provisional where necessary.
While differences remain between the United States and European Union as
to the most appropriate scope for the forthcoming negotiations, both
sides agreed to continue to take forward their discussions in a
constructive spirit in forthcoming weeks.
The leaders agreed that the new round had to be definitively
different in content and process from its predecessors. For example, we
had to take into account the rapid advances in technology, particularly
related to electronic commerce. They agreed on the goal of better
addressing the social dimensions of trade by promoting a substantive
dialogue with our partners, involving the WTO and the ILO, although we
still differ on the modalities. The dialogue would include an
examination of the relationship between trade policy, trade
liberalization, development and fundamental labor rights, so as to
maximize the benefits of open trade for workers. The two leaders also
agreed that the new round should enhance the potential for positive
synergies between trade liberalization, environmental protection and
economic development.
But the agenda for the new Round also had to address the needs and
interests of all our partners. Although major players in the world
economy, the U.S. and EU needed to do more than in previous Rounds to
work with all our partners in the WTO system. The new Round should
offer major opportunities to the developing countries, strengthening
their role in the world economy. Particular attention needs to be paid
to the least developed countries. Their concerns and interests should be
fully taken into account, including through specifically targeted,
enhanced, and effective market access and capacity building.
An additional important new element was to make the multilateral
trading system as responsive as possible to all our citizens. The two
leaders agreed to work vigorously to assure the public that the trading
system and the WTO as an institution works in the broadest interests of
everyone -- and to ensure that this remains the case. Both leaders
renewed their commitment to the WTO Dispute Settlement System, and
agreed that WTO decisions should be respected and implemented. The
leaders also anticipated ratifying at Seattle a package of improvements
to the Dispute Settlement Understanding. Additionally, they agreed to
work towards enhanced transparency in the WTO decision-making process.