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WTO Conference (Hong Kong)

I welcome the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Mr. Duncan) to his new position. It is a great pleasure to be reunited with him after four miserable years apart.—[Laughter.] Perhaps I should say four disappointing years apart. I mentioned the hon. Members who were in Hong Kong as part of the official delegation, and the hon. Members for Sutton Coldfield (Mr. Mitchell) and for Buckingham (John Bercow), in addition to other hon. Members, were also present in various capacities. There was huge interest in the Hong Kong conference. On the timing of the discussions, the hon. Gentleman asked whether the outcome would have been different if we had managed to choreograph the Brussels conference before the Hong Kong conference. I do not think that that was possible—the date for the Hong Kong conference was set in stone, because it is not easy to rearrange accommodation for 6,000 delegates. On the budget discussions in Brussels, it is almost par for the course that presidencies do not start moving until they approach their end. I do not know whether the conferences could have been choreographed differently, but I am sure that that would not have made any difference to the outcome. The huge reluctance of member states, including France, to agree the end of export subsidies was about protecting the CAP, and I ask hon. Members to recognise that the big issue in relation to those talks and the CAP has not been tackled yet. Market access is the big issue, and it is responsible for 90 per cent. of the money made in terms of the three pillars in agriculture. To get a meaningful deal on not only agriculture but industry—services are a slightly different matter—next year’s discussion will be very interesting, because given the mandate of the negotiators, Commissioners Mandelson and Fischer Boel, it will be very difficult to achieve a meaningful outcome to the talks without interfering with the CAP, which is where the galvanising effect of Hong Kong is significant. Watch this space and see what happens early next year. I agree with the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton about tariff-free and quota-free access for the least developed countries. I cannot say exactly what tariff lines are included in the outcome, because the argument concerned the percentage—once one has agreed the percentage, one then decides the tariff lines. The US would not accept anything higher than 95 per cent., but the developing countries wanted 99.8 per cent. immediately, with the other bit being closed over a period of time. A compromise was reached at 97 per cent., which is why all 150 member states signed up to the statement and why the developing countries were in the end happy to make progress. However, it is important to close the other 3 per cent., because, as I have said, that 3 per cent. is likely to include the very tariff lines from which poorer countries can benefit by exporting into developed markets. However, the issue concerns not only the United States, but Japan and a few others. On aid for trade, the UK will provide new money. We think that the EU will provide new money, but there is a process to make sure that the commitment is genuine. Many questions were asked about the substance of Japan’s offer, and a process is taking place to make sure that that contribution is genuine. How do we go forward, given that, to use the hon. Gentleman’s comparison, the WTO is rather like a sausage—Bismarck once remarked that laws are like sausages? The process is difficult and tortuous, but the timeline set out in the statement agreed on Sunday night is that the modalities—in other words, the formulae—will be in place by April 2006. By July 2006, we will have completed the schedules—the items to which the formulae will be applied. Given the American fast-track system, which involves the US Trade Promotion Authority, America can put the package before Congress and the Senate on a take-it-or-leave-it basis until summer 2007. After that date, the process will become tortuous, which could mean that the US finds it difficult to deliver on an ambitious deal. The momentum exists to get the process moving satisfactorily: the director general of the WTO and the European Commission are key players, but heads of state probably have a role to play in galvanising the discussions. Finally, I confirm our absolute confidence in the WTO. If we were to move from multilateral discussions and agreements back to bilateral agreements, the poor would be the losers. Although some voices, some of which belong to professional sceptics, say that no deal would be a cause for celebration, I think that no deal would bring into question the future of multilateral negotiations, which would be bad for developed countries and worse for developing countries.