SWITZERLAND: WTO APPROVES EU PLAN TO SHAPE GLOBAL PACT FREEING TRADE IN FINANCIAL SERVICES.

Record ID: 639590

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: WTO APPROVES EU PLAN TO SHAPE GLOBAL PACT FREEING TRADE IN FINANCIAL SERVICES.
  • Date: 30th June 1995
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JUNE 30, 1995) 1. SV WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (WTO) WTO DIRECTOR-GENERAL RENATO RUGGIERO COMES OUT OF BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. SV RUGGIERO SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 0.24 3. LV BUILDING/SV MINISTERS COMING OUT OF WTO BUILDING (3 SHOTS) 0.34 4. SV EU TRADE COMMISSIONER SIR LEON BRITTAN SAYING THE MULTILATERAL PROCESS IS BEING KEPT ALIVE (ENGLISH) 0.58 5. GV/SV INTERIOR OF WTO MEETING ROOM/ DELEGATES(2 SHOTS) 1.08 SEQ.2: TRANSCRIPT; RUGGIERO: "SMALL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES HAVE MADE A COURAGEOUS DECISION TO SUPPORT THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) UNDER PRESSURE FROM THE DEVELOPING WORLD." SEQ.4: TRANSCRIPT; BRITTAN: "WE WOULD ENCOURAGE THE REST OF THE WORLD TO KEEP THEIR OFFERS, EVEN THOUGH THE AMERICANS HAVE TAKEN THEIR OFFER OFF OF THE TABLE AND HOPEFULLY TO GET THE REST TO IMPROVE THEIR OFFERS. SO I THINK WE ARE KEEPING THE MULTI LATERAL PROCESS ALIVE AND KEEPING UP THE PROSPECTS, WHERE WE ARE MAKING SOME PROGRESS TOWARDS OPENING UP WORLD MARKETS AND THE PROSPECTS OF AN EVEN BIGGER DEAL AT A LATER STAGE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 15th July 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • City:
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Reuters ID: LVACKDPBAOH4OQNNWUN3BLSECKQN
  • Story Text: Member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Friday (July 30) approved a European Union (EU) plan to try to shape a global pact freeing trade in financial services after the United States said it could not back the deal.

    Some 80 WTO countries, including major players in the multi- billion dollar sector seen as vital for world economic growth, backed the EU proposal to extend talks for a further month after the expiry of a deadline on Friday, a spokesman said.

    Ambassadors and other trade diplomats applauded when the decision was taken by consensus just one hour before the deadline was to run out.

    WTO Director-General Renato Ruggiero, who had warned total collapse of the pact could undermine global recovery, welcomed the decision.

    The United States, which IS the largest single provider of financial services, on Thursday pulled out of the talks saying market opening offers from developing countries were inadequate.

    In the talks, left over from the seven-year Uruguay Round negotiations which shaped a new world trade treaty slashing goods tariffs by one-third and went into force on January 1, developing countries argued for more time to change domestic laws which for years strictly controlled foreign business.

    U.S. negotiators submitted a scaled down schedule of market access commitments which they admitted went little further than those made in December 1993 at the end of the Uruguay Round.

    But the U.S. delegation did not block the late-night consensus by WTO member states to endorse the EU plan.

    Earlier the plan had been agreed at an emergency meeting in Geneva by ministers from the 15 EU member countries. An EU official said: "We are not isolating the Americans, they are isolating themselves." "This keeps the show on the road," EU Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan said. "If it had not been for the EU intervention today, the negotiations would have been a dead duck and the offers would have come leaping off the table." Brittan said the rescue plan, which means WTO members have until July 28 to decide whether they can go ahead together without the WTO's most powerful member in terms of trade, provided a breathing space.

    "I think we are keeping the multilateral process alive and the prospects of opening up world markets, and keeping the prospects of an even bigger deal at some stage," he added.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register