There is a growing sense among the members of the WTO that we have to move forward together along a broad front. In the Community we are, however, convinced that it will be necessary to review the agenda, not in terms of slimming it down but by making it more attractive to developing countries, stressing in particular questions such as improved market access, a greater development orientation, and a greater openness towards a review of the WTO's rules on dumping and subsidies. As you know, the Community has been pressing ever since the Singapore Ministerial Conference for the inclusion of both competition and investment on a future negotiating agenda. Investment is already included in the context of the GATS services negotiations. To us, it is difficult to see any justification for excluding investment in these particular sectors from international disciplines while including investment made in the services sector, and we are confident that others are coming around to this view.
Competition policy is a different matter.
And here we are faced with a great paradox. For these past 50-odd years, the GATT, and now the WTO, has focused virtually exclusively on the reduction of trade barriers created by governments. Many obstacles have been reduced, some have even been eliminated. The paradox is that the governments have been focusing exclusively on reducing the barriers which they themselves had put in place. It is not as if the basic idea is a new one, indeed, it is interesting to recall that the 1948 Havana Charter, the precursor of the GATT, contained provisions on restrictive business practices.