OTTAWA (Staff) – There is little chance the Americans will scuttle creation of the World Trade Organization by failing to ratify the new world trade deal, says an Ottawa-based trade specialist.
But they will keep the world guessing while they play their games on Capitol Hill, predicts Bill Miner of the Centre for Trade Policy and Law.
“I believe there is wide support in Washington for getting it (legislation implementing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) through,” he said. “There will be lots of ‘too-ing and fro-ing’ but the people I speak to in Washington are confident it will pass.”
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Miner, who was involved in wheat negotiations during his years as a senior federal wheat bureaucrat, said it is a familiar pattern.
“When you deal with the Americans, you have three negotiations – one to set the agenda, one on the substance and then one to get it through the American system.”
In recent weeks, concerns have been raised by GATT officials about the prospect of a drawn-out American political fight over GATT-implementing legislation.
Some congressmen have predicted it will fail in Congress because of fears that world rules will undermine the sovereign right of the U.S. to protect or promote its own interests.
The issue was discussed last weekend in Los Angeles when trade representatives from the U.S., Canada, Japan and the European Union met.
Canadian trade minister Roy
MacLaren went to the meeting promising to push the other, bigger players to quickly implement the deal, scheduled to take effect next year.
MacLaren told them the Canadian government will move quickly, introducing its GATT-implementing legislation in Parliament this fall. Miner predicted it will pass without much controversy.
He said the only argument could come on a point that is opposite to the American worries.
“Given the continuing trade disputes with the Americans, there might be questions here about whether the dispute settlement provisions are strong enough,” he said.
