Be Bold, Business Leaders Tell Ministers at World Trade Organization Meeting in Montreal

July 29, 2003

The members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) should continue to pursue a bold and ambitious agenda in the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks, Canada’s business leaders have told trade ministers from 25 countries gathered this week in Montreal.

Thomas d’Aquino, President and Chief Executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), said the increasingly uncertain outlook for the global economy reinforces the need for real progress at the meeting of ministers from all 146 WTO member countries in Cancǧn, Mexico in September.

While the degree of success or failure in Cancǧn will affect both the Canadian and global economies, its most potent impact will be on less developed countries, he said after a meeting Monday in Montreal with WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi and Canadian Minister for International Trade Pierre Pettigrew.

“Billions of people in the developing world are counting on the courage of political leaders in industrialized countries to enable them to share fully in the prosperity that flows from trade liberalization,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

Two critical issues clearly must be resolved in the short term: there must be an agreement on access to affordable medicines for least developed countries; and there is a need for real progress in improving market access, reducing domestic supports and eliminating export subsidies in agriculture.

“Resolving these two issues will require both strong political leadership and flexibility, but a breakthrough on both fronts is essential if ministers in Cancǧn are to unlock the full potential of the Doha Development Agenda,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

In a major statement in May, the CCCE called on Canada to support a sweeping 12-point agenda within the WTO, including the total elimination worldwide of all tariffs on industrialized products. Trade within the industrialized world is increasingly free of tariffs, to the extent that 71 percent of the duties paid by exporters in developing countries now go to the governments of other developing countries.

The CCCE statement also identified trade in services, non-tariff barriers and dispute resolution as well as agricultural trade as critical areas for progress. “There are many difficult issues to be resolved. But to restore confidence in the WTO and in multilateral processes and institutions more generally, disagreement in any one area must not undermine the determination to push broadly for global progress,” said Mr. d’Aquino.

The focus of the Doha Round is on expanding the benefits of trade liberalization to all, not just the few. “We must not let a group of violent protesters, who have no coherent alternative to offer, undermine the determination of democratically elected governments in rich countries to do what is right in enabling the world’s poor to have a better shot at realizing their hopes and dreams,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

The CCCE is working closely with other leading business organizations globally to encourage bold action by WTO member governments. In late May, for instance, CCCE Chairman Richard L. George, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc., together with his counterparts at business organizations in the United States, Japan and Europe, signed an open letter to the leaders of the G-8 countries ahead of their meeting in Evian, France.

This letter, also signed by the chairmen of The Business Roundtable, The European Round Table of Industrialists, International Chamber of Commerce, Nippon Keidanren, and The Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe, said that success in Cancǧn would help both workers and consumers around the world and be of particular benefit to those in low- and middle-income countries.

“We reject the pessimism and skepticism expressed in recent months about the prospects for the key mid-term meeting in Cancǧn, and for concluding a successful negotiation by the 2005 target date. None of the various issues on the WTO agenda presents an insuperable conceptual challenge. The promise of the WTO Doha Development Agenda can still be achieved,” the joint letter concluded.

The CCCE was Canada’s private sector leader in the development of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the WTO agenda, and continues to be actively engaged in international trade and investment issues. Formerly known as the Business Council on National Issues, the Council changed its name and expanded its mandate in 2001 to engage more effectively beyond Canada’s borders.

In addition to its most recent work on the WTO agenda, the Council launched a North American Security and Prosperity Initiative in January this year, proposing a five-part strategy for managing Canada’s future role in North America.

In this context, the CCCE is working closely with its United States and Mexican counterparts, The Business Roundtable and the Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios, in building on the success of the North American Free Trade Agreement, in strengthening regional efforts such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation initiative and in promoting multilateral trade liberalization.

The Canadian Council of Chief Executives, composed of the chief executive officers of 150 leading Canadian corporations, is Canada’s senior business organization. Its members head companies that administer in excess of $2.1 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of more than $500 billion and account for a significant majority of Canada’s private sector investment, exports, training and research and development.