WTO Candidates Chafe At Slow Pace of Accession
Russia, Others Say
Concession Demands
Delay Their Entry
Some of the biggest countries seeking entry into the World Trade Organization are growing increasingly frustrated with the drawn-out accession process, charging member nations with demanding ever-deeper concessions in return for membership.
After more than a decade of talks, Russia, Ukraine and Vietnam all had hoped to be ready to join at this week's ministerial meeting in Hong Kong. All three now have pushed back their targets to next year at the earliest, and anger is building at what many of the candidates feel are unfair demands.
"Today, we've done about everything we can," said a senior Russian official. "We can't make any more concessions."
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Plus, see further coverage of the trade talks.Ukraine also had high hopes for quick accession after last year's popular uprising brought a pro-Western government to power, but talks have stalled. When the WTO's top official said in November that accession this year no longer was in the cards, a top Ukrainian official said the comments were unhelpful and could further slow momentum.
In Vietnam, the finger is pointed at the neighbor to the north. "China got the best benefit from the WTO process, and now they have flooded the market with their products," says Hoang Van Dung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hanoi. "When we came along later, all sorts of new conditions were attached to our membership."
Joining the 149-member WTO is always a long process, requiring negotiations of highly detailed individual trade deals with certain members followed by multilateral talks in Geneva. Once accepted, members enjoy reduced trade restrictions, elaborate systems for resolving disputes and the chance to influence new WTO rules. Joining the WTO also can boost economic liberalization at home.
Chinese leaders, their economy dependent on exports for growth, pushed hard for membership, ramming through often-drastic overhauls to economic policy.
China joined the WTO at the end of 2001. As part of the deal, Beijing promised to combat the theft of intellectual property, particularly pirated CDs and DVDs. Critics from the entertainment industry, primarily in the U.S., now say China hasn't done enough.
That experience has heightened attention to the intellectual-property issue in talks with WTO candidates, according to Western officials familiar with the talks. That often leads to tough demands.
Still, U.S. and European officials insist that since the heart of the WTO is the organization's elaborate system of rules for how countries can and can't regulate trade, existing members want to make sure that newcomers will follow through on what they pledge.
"When you come into the WTO from the outside, you will always perceive it as an unequal negotiation," says a European Union trade official. But the WTO is "quite objective as to what it requires."
Indeed, Vietnam hasn't always delivered on financial-sector and business reforms. A new law providing a common set of regulations for both local and foreign investors will take effect in the middle of 2006 after going through 18 drafts. The law will guarantee investment incentives and allow arbitration overseas to resolve disputes between Vietnamese and foreign partners.
Fred Burke, managing partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie in Ho Chi Minh City, says Vietnam also has been slow to fully implement a 2001 bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. designed to allow foreign businesses to set up import and distribution operations in Vietnam. "That hasn't sat well with the international business constituencies who are needed to lobby in favor of Vietnam's accession," he says.
Russia's drawn-out negotiations, meanwhile, have given partners a chance to test Moscow's pledges. In some cases, the results have been disappointing, trading partners say. In negotiating a bilateral deal with the European Union in 2004, considered a key step in Russia's WTO accession, Russia agreed to remove by 2013 costly fees charged to European airlines for the right to fly over Siberia. European officials say the charges, which originated in the Soviet period when the country's airspace was closed, amount to a direct subsidy to Russia's Aeroflot.
After more than a year of talks, the two sides still are haggling over the details -- and Moscow continues to demand the fees at current levels, which amount to about �330 million ($394 million) a year.
Russian officials say civil-aviation issues aren't covered by the WTO, but Brussels says the fundamental principles of the WTO are at stake.
For EU airlines, which have faced decades of what they consider extortion by Aeroflot and the Russian government, the lesson is that any agreement with Russia must be completely bulletproof.
Similarly, European and U.S. officials continue to complain about what they view as Moscow's arbitrary use of sanitary and veterinary problems to cut off lucrative farm imports from EU members.
"Any time we turn around and think we've solved the problem, it's come back," said a U.S. trade official.
Agricultural issues are one of a handful that remain unresolved in Russia's negotiations with the U.S., the last major country with which Moscow doesn't yet have a WTO deal. Russian officials had hoped to reach that agreement by the end of this year, paving the way to WTO membership sometime next summer. But last week, the senior Russian official warned that a deal might not come, potentially delaying WTO accession for as long as a year.
Intellectual property is a major sticking point, as U.S. officials try to assess whether a recent Russian crackdown on piracy is going to deliver lasting results, unlike previous efforts. "It really goes to the broader and deeper sense of commitment and determination of the Russians to adhere to the rules," the U.S. official says.
Washington also is pushing for greater access to Russia for foreign banks and insurers, as well as lower tariffs on imported airliners. The U.S. official said that even if Moscow and Washington agree, months of tough talks remain ahead in the final, multilateral part of the accession process in Geneva.
Russian officials say they are committed to meeting WTO standards, in part because joining the trade body will help restart stalled economic liberalization.
But for some of Moscow's trading partners, that is just the problem. "The general feeling of a lot of people is that the negotiations are much slower than they needed to be, and this reflects a lack of consensus within the government on the priority of entry," says a European official close to the talks.
入世谈判旷日持久 一些国家失去耐心
仍在排队等候加入世界贸易组织(World Trade Organization, 简称WTO)的一些国家开始对这个旷日持久的过程越来越不满，谈判过程拖得越久，他们所需作出的让步也就越多。
已经过十多年谈判的俄罗斯、乌克兰和越南原本都指望能在本周香港的部长级会议上获准加入WTO，但现在它们都将预期时间推迟到了最早明年，很多申请国都对所谓的不公平要求日益不满。
“今天，我们已做了能做的一切，”一位俄罗斯高级官员表示，“我们不能再作让步了。”
乌克兰。去年亲西方的政府上台后，该国也曾对迅速加入WTO有很高的期待，但现在谈判陷入了停顿。今年11月份，WTO高级官员表示，今年不计划再接受新的成员国。乌克兰的一位高级官员表示，这些言论对他们很不利，可能会进一步放缓入世进程。
在越南，矛头则指向了北方邻国。“中国从加入WTO中获得了最大利益，现在他们的产品充斥了世界市场，”越南工商会(Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry)的副主席Hoang Van Dung表示，“对于我们后来的，就给添加了各种各样的条件。”
加入这个有149个成员国的WTO，总是一个漫长的过程，围绕各项贸易协定要展开非常详尽的多边谈判。一旦成功加入，成员国就能享受较低的贸易限制，细致的争议解决机制，并有望参与新WTO规则的制定。加入WTO，还能推动国内经济自由化的进程。
经济增长依赖出口的中国，其政府曾力推加入WTO，并对经济政策进行了大刀阔斧的改革。2001年年底，中国加入了WTO。根据协定，北京承诺打击知识产权侵权行为，特别是对盗版CD和DVD。但娱乐业人士批评称，中国在这方面做得并不够。
据熟悉谈判的西方官员称，有鉴于此，其他国家在申请加入WTO的谈判中有关知识产权问题被给予了高度关注。这通常意味著要求提高了。
不过，美国和欧洲的官员们坚持称，既然WTO的核心就是繁复细密的各种协定组成的体系，这些协定对成员国如何规范贸易作出了规定，现有成员国当然希望确定新成员能遵守承诺。
“当你从WTO外部进入内部，你总是会把这看作是不平等的谈判，”欧盟某贸易官员表示，但WTO“提出的要求是非常客观的。”
确实，越南尚未兑现其金融和企业改革计划。对境内外投资者实施同一法律框架约束的一项新法案将于2006年年中方能生效，该法案经过了18次草案讨论。该法律将为投资提供保障和鼓励，如果外方和越南合伙人之间有争议，也可以到海外进行仲裁。
Baker & McKenzie律师事务所驻胡志明市的执行合伙人佛瑞德?伯克(Fred Burke)表示，越南在充分执行美越2001年双边贸易协定方面也行动迟缓，该协定允许外国公司在越南设立进口和分销业务。“这令国际大公司非常不满，而越南能否加入WTO，还有赖这些公司的游说和活动，”他说。
与此同时，俄罗斯旷日持久的谈判也成为了其他国家检验莫斯科承诺的一个机会。2004年在和欧盟进行双边谈判时，俄罗斯同意到2013年免除欧洲航空公司飞经西伯利亚航线缴纳的高额费用，此举被认为是俄罗斯加入WTO进程中关键的一步。欧洲官员们表示，俄罗斯征收的这笔费用相当于就是对俄罗斯Aeroflot进行直接补贴。
在经过一年多的谈判后，双方仍在就细节问题讨价还价，莫斯科依然要求征收现有水平的费用，相当于每年3.30亿欧元（合3.94亿美元）左右。
类似地，欧洲和美国官员们还在抱怨莫斯科动不动就以卫生和检疫为由，中断从欧盟成员国进口农产品。
“每次我们松口气，认为问题终于解决了，问题就又出现了，”一位美国贸易官员表示。
在俄罗斯与美国的谈判中，农业问题是几个依然未解决的问题之一。俄罗斯官员们原本希望能在今年年底前达成协议，为明年夏天加入WTO铺平道路。但上周，上文提到的俄罗斯高级官员警告称，可能无法达成协议，俄罗斯加入WTO可能要推后1年。
知识产权是一个主要的胶著点。美国官员们正在看俄罗斯最近的打击盗版行动是否能有长效，而不再像以前那样。华盛顿也在敦促俄罗斯加大银行和保险业的开放，并降低飞机进口的关税等。
