06-3169  . /. JOB(06)/216 30 June 2006  
 
 
 
INFORMAL TNC MEETING 
AT THE LEVEL OF HEAD OF DELEGATION 
 
Friday, 30 June 2006 
 
Opening Statement by DG (as delivered ) 
 
 
 I would like to start by welcoming all delegati ons, especially Ministers and Senior Officials, 
to this informal meeting of the TNC at the level of Heads of Delegation. 
 
 The purpose of this meeting is to continue our discussions towards establishing modalities in Agriculture and NAMA.  We have the texts which have  been circulated by the Chairs, and I intend to 
brief you on recent developments.  
 When we last met on Wednesday in this ope n-ended format, I announced my intention to 
begin an intensive consultative process this w eek in various formats with these open-ended TNC 
meetings at its core.  I also announced that we w ould have a formal meeting of the TNC, which has 
been convened for tomorrow, 1 July, and which coul d be continued in subsequent days as necessary.  
  I also announced my intention to conduct small-group consultations involving a number of 
Ministers and their representatives, which we star ted doing this morning, to be followed by open-
ended informal TNC meetings, in order to ensure full transparen cy in the process. 
  Regarding this morning's meeting, its focu s was mainly on making a start, and getting a 
clearer indication of possible movements in the positions of key players, particularly in the light of the 
meetings among delegations and Ministers that have taken place in Geneva and elsewhere in recent 
days, and we have had many of them.     As I advised Heads of Delegation last Wedn esday, I intend to reconvene the ministerial 
consultative group later this afternoon, when I hope to  move on to a more substantive and structured 
debate, on the basis of the key issues for initial focus in the areas I outlined to you earlier this week.   
 
 Let me just recall here that the sequencing of issues I have proposed for Ministerial discussion is not a ranking by importance.  It is intended onl y to pave the way for a further round of discussion 
on these issues.  All
 topics contained in the two draft text s are important to one constituency or 
another, and all  these topics will have to be addressed as part  of the full modalities – and there is no 
such thing as less than full modaliti es.  I want to clarify this, particularly regarding a question on 
which I have received signals from a number of your  ministers, which is the question of small and 
vulnerable economies.  This will  be considered as part of the development of the discussion on full 
modalities in both Agriculture and NAMA, at the appropriate moment.     Further meetings of the ministerial cons ultative group, as well as of these informal open-
ended HODs, will be organized as necessary.  I re mind you of what I said on Wednesday, which is 
that all delegations have to be on call at very short notice in these coming days, and to watch the 
notice-boards for timings of these meetings.     At this stage, I must admit that the discussi ons between Ministers over the past few days and 
hours have been quite sobering.  Although movement  is appearing here and there, some of the 
numbers remaining on the table at this stage do not  create a landing zone.  However, as I have said 
many, many times before, failure to agree very soon on Agriculture and NAMA modalities means that JOB(06)/216 
Page 2  
 
we are putting at risk the future of the Round itsel f and, as a consequence of that, the WTO and the 
multilateral system.  To reach agreement, we need numbers.      We also have, as you know, important deadlines looming on other subjects – services, trade facilitation, subsidies, including fisheries subsid ies, countervailing measures and anti-dumping.  
These have been programmed for the end of July, and I believe that carrying unfinished modalities 
over into the next month would mean a major tra ffic jam and would further diminish our hopes of 
agreeing on many of these issues.     I think we all need to take a bit of distance a nd look at what is at stake if we fail in these 
negotiations.  Quite frankly, it is difficult to exagge rate the importance of the Round.  Its potential for 
contributing to global growth, correcting imbalan ces, and promoting development is obvious  This 
Round is deeper, larger and fairer across the board  than the Uruguay Round, and one that will in 
various ways level ambitiously the playing field in putting development at the centre of the system.  
 
 We have made some progress.  If you look at what is on the table today, it goes well beyond 
what was done in the Uruguay Round ten years ago, and we know that this is not sufficient.  This is true for agriculture in export comp etition, agricultural subsidies and mark et access.  It is also true for 
industrial tariffs, notably given the new technology we are using to erode tariff peaks.  We also have 
the duty-free quota-free decision from Hong Kong on LDCs, which remains, in terms of its 
implementation, to be decided.  You know we are also working on this Aid for Trade package, and on 
cotton.  All this is potentially on the table, and if  we fail all this will disappear from the table.   
  We need therefore to make the next hours and days count.  I would very simply urge all of 
you to reflect seriously and urgently on what the impli cations might be before it  really is too late, and 
to reassess your positions and the way you have been negotiating until now.  If things don't turn 
around radically in the next hours or days, we will quite frankly be facing a crisis.  I don't think we 
have the luxury of continuing to give  ourselves extensions at this stag e.  Procrastination will not bring 
success.   What we really need from the next days is to  move the negotiations to  the next phase, which 
is where the schedules can be drafted.  In order to do this, and I repeat, you need full modalities, 
which means numbers, and in order to do that we need  real negotiations.  This is what Ministers have 
come here for.  But at this stage, to be very fra nk, open and transparent with you, it is not clear that 
real negotiation will take place.  This puts us in a difficult position.  We are well into the red part of 
the red zone in terms of finishing the Round.  You have all taken a commitment that we should do that 
this year, and for that there has to  be an ability to negotiate.  Pretending that we want to conclude the 
Round by the end of this year and showing an inabili ty to negotiate in any real sense are two things 
which cannot go together.  This is a ques tion which cannot any longer be avoided. 
  So I hope that when we resume discussions, we will be in a position to hear fresh proposals.  
We have had a bit of that, but not enough.  I rema in of the view that agreement on the modalities is 
doable if we work intensively, constructively a nd with the necessary sense of urgency which I would 
like you to share with me.  I remain fully prepared  to play my part to facilitate the process of 
consultation and negotiation among you.  It is now a question of whether you can exhibit the political 
courage that is needed to take the decisions and that  will allow us to move forward to the next stage.  
It is possible, it is doable, but at this stage of th e discussions my report to you is that we are not there 
yet.    
 
 
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