All of us, journalists, NGO representatives, delegates, attending the WTO ministerial here in Geneva are spending lots of time (and money) at the WTO cafeteria. No doubt the service there is excellent. Friendly waiters make it less painful to think about how many meals you've had in the same place over the past five days!
Ministers today, congratulated the service as well... but a service of a different kind. This afternoon was the "signaling conference" on services, where ministers discussed how they could further liberalize the services industries in their countries.
Coming out of the meeting on time (at 7pm), they all highlighted that discussions had been positive, with substantial "signals" coming from some of the major players. The EU and U.S. allegedly highlighted their ability to offer more access to their markets for highly skilled professionals - this was one of the long-standing demands by India.
It sounds like this "positive" meeting will add to the momentum that the Round gained yesterday. As a result, it is likely that the conference will extend into next week... probably until Tuesday or Wednesday. Good news for the WTO cafeteria.
How developing countries' concerns will be addressed in the coming days remains very uncertain. Many of them - including India, China, South Africa, Argentina, Indonesia - still have significant concerns with the proposals on agriculture and NAMA. But the tendency here right now is to overlook these concerns and blame others for not being more positive.
Issues like banana, preference erosion and cotton, remain to be dealt with. There is huge pressure to rush these issues. This is of great concern because there will be no time to properly consider the impacts of what is agreed to in a possible deal.
