04.10.2018

CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL NEGINT Brasília, 04 de outubro de 2018

Índice I. OMC _______________________________________________ 1 U.S. says it cannot support some of EU's ideas for WTO reform ___________ 2 Australia questions India’s sugar subsidy bilaterally and at WTO ___________ 3 II. NEGOCIAÇÕES REGIONAIS E BILATERAIS _________________ 4 Beijing stays silent on new U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada ________ 4 III. OUTROS ____________________________________________ 5 “Si no conseguimos el tratado Unión Europea-Mercosur, Estados Unidos nos arrollará” ______________________________________________________ 5

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U.S. says it cannot support some of EU's ideas for WTO reform Reuters (Reino Unido) The United States gave the first hint on Thursday of its view of attempts to reform the World Trade Organization, rejecting some proposals put forward by the European Union to resolve a crisis at the home of world trade in Geneva. U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea told a packed audience at the WTO that the United States could not accept EU ideas for reforming the WTO’s Appellate Body, effectively the supreme court of world trade, by giving the judges longer, single terms and giving the secretariat more funding. “Our view is that that means less accountability for the Appellate Body. We cannot support something that makes the Appellate Body less accountable,” Shea said. U.S. President Donald Trump has taken the Appellate Body to the brink of collapse by blocking the appointment of judges. Normally the WTO has seven judges but it now has only three, the minimum to hear dispute cases. Shea has complained about the judges overstepping their authority, breaching their own procedures and meddling in U.S. law. “We have been very clear about our positions,” Shea said. “We have yet to see any proposals here at the WTO. People say ‘where’s your list of negotiating demands?’ We already agreed, negotiated a system (when the WTO was created) in 1995 and the Appellate Body has strayed from that system.” Trump has threatened to withdraw from the WTO if it doesn’t “shape up”, although he has not explained what that would require. EU Ambassador Marc Vanheukelen, alongside Shea at a WTO panel event, rejected his view that the EU proposal would make the judges less accountable and said it was impossible to expect them to cope with without more resources. The United States was not being realistic, he said. “You cannot ask people to run the 100m in 4 seconds,” Vanheukelen said.

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Shea said there were some areas where the EU and the United States were working together, including to on standards for notification of trade policies and on rules about which countries get special treatment as “developing countries”. The United States was also keen to reinvigorate the WTO’s negotiating function, with countries agreeing new rules and greater trade openness. Shea also repeated U.S. complaints about China, saying that its economic model was inconsistent with the norms of the WTO. “This is something this institution really needs to grapple with if we’re going to move forward,” he said.

Australia questions India’s sugar subsidy bilaterally and at WTO The Economic Times (Índia) Australia has raised concerns over India’s sugar subsidy dole out and questioned how the host of financial assistance measures announced this year are within the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In its queries to the WTO, it has also asked how India intends to dispose of its planned 3 million tonnes sugar buffer stock to ensure there is no impact on the global sugar market. Over the last one year, the government has announced a slew of measures—from doubling import duty, scrapping export duty and two financial packages comprising creation of a buffer stock and offering soft loans—to bail out its cash-starved sugar mills and cane farmers. Besides raising the issue at the WTO, Australia, a major sugar exporter, has also held at least two rounds of meetings with the commerce department, according to an official. India also doubled the import duty on sugar to 100% and then scrapped the export duty on it. It also made it compulsory for millers to export 2 million tonnes of sugar even as the global prices were low.

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In June, the government announced a Rs 8,500-crore package for the industry, including soft loans, for creating ethanol capacity. Another query of the Australian government pertains to making future sugar exports financially viable, given India’s record production and surplus and the gap between domestic and international sugar prices. There is a glut-like situation due to record 32 million tonnes of sugar production in the 2017-18 marketing year. “Brazil and Thailand have also joined hands with Australia and they say global prices have crashed because of our actions. However, we are an insignificant player and the subsidy is not huge,” said another official aware of the development. The official said these are India’s domestic measures and unlikely to impact the global market. For the minimum indicative export quota (MIEQ), Australia has asked India to confirm the volume of sugar that was exported under the scheme, and whether the scheme can be extended till the end of 2018. “Can India confirm whether financial assistance has been withheld from sugar mills for not exporting the prescribed quantities under the MIEQ,” it said. Canberra has also flagged concerns on India’s market price support for sugarcane through the Fair and Remunerative Price, which was raised for 2018-19 sugar season, and sought details on state advised price announced by certain states.

II. NEGOCIAÇÕES REGIONAIS E BILATERAIS Beijing stays silent on new U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada

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Politico (Estados Unidos) he Chinese government and its official media have remained silent on the new trade deal agreed between the US, Canada and Mexico this week, even though the pact is widely seen as a potential threat to China’s future position in the global trading system. Since the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) Agreement was made on Sunday – on the eve of China’s week-long National Day break – the foreign and commerce ministries in Beijing have not released any comment on the deal, which could help Washington in its escalating trade war with China. The agreement, a revision and update to replace the North America Free Trade Agreement, includes a special clause empowering the US to review or effectively reject any free-trade deal that Canada or Mexico might make with a “non-market economy”. That stipulation is seen by analysts as targeting Beijing since China continues to be designated a non-market economy by both the United States and the European Union. US National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow made the point directly in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, saying the USMCA, along with ongoing US trade talks with the EU and Japan, would give Washington “pretty much a united front among the major allies” in dealing with China.

III. OUTROS “Si no conseguimos el tratado Unión Europea-Mercosur, Estados Unidos nos arrollará”

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El País (Espanha) El proyecto de tratado entre Mercosur y la Unión Europea se encuentra en una fase crítica. Quizá al borde del definitivo naufragio. La negociación para crear una gran zona de libre comercio entre la UE y la organización latinoamericana (Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay y Uruguay, más Venezuela, actualmente en suspenso, y Bolivia, en proceso de adhesión), encalló hace meses en la cuestión agrícola. Para Christoph Leitl, presidente del poderoso lobby Eurochambres, se ha llegado al momento de “ahora o nunca”. “Si no conseguimos ya ese tratado, los Estados Unidos de Donald Trump nos arrollarán, es así de simple”. Eurochambres, la asociación de las cámaras de comercio europeas, engloba a más de 20 millones de empresas y goza de un notable poder de presión en Bruselas. Su presidente se encuentra en Buenos Aires para difundir el mensaje de que es necesario aprovechar una ocasión única: a finales del mes próximo se reunirán en la ciudad los dirigentes más poderosos del mundo, con ocasión de la cumbre del G-20, el foro que congrega a las potencias económicas y las economías emergentes. “Es el momento de superar los problemas técnicos que, en realidad, son ya pocos porque el apartado agrícola está casi despejado, y hacer política de altura porque tanto la Unión Europea como Mercosur necesitan absolutamente el acuerdo”, dice. A Leitl, dirigente del conservador Partido Popular austríaco, no le parece que las turbulencias internas en los principales países de Europa y Latinoamérica constituyan un obstáculo insalvable. Admite que el Brexit absorbe la atención de Bruselas, que Angela Merkel y Emmanuel Macron se encuentran en una situación de fragilidad, que hay graves desavenencias entre la Comisión Europea y los gobiernos de Hungría y Polonia, que Brasil está a las puertas de unas elecciones que puede ganar el candidato de ultraderecha Jair Bolsonaro y que Argentina sufre una inflación galopante y un desplome del peso. “Todas esas dificultades existen, pero precisamente por ellas resulta imprescindible que actuemos con sentido de la historia; creo que tenemos ante nosotros una ventana de oportunidad de dos o tres meses y si no la aprovechamos, se acabó, definitivamente se acabó”. Ese “se acabó” significa para Christoph Leitl el triunfo de “la fuerza financiera y militar” de Estados Unidos y China sobre el resto del mundo, y una derrota del libre comercio. “La Unión Europea es la mayor potencia comercial del planeta y el presidente de la Comisión Europea, Jean-Claude Juncker, tiene la misión de dirigir la política exterior común y preservar nuestra preeminencia, pese a todas las dificultades”, afirma. Para él, el avance del proteccionismo y el cierre de mercados entrañaría el empobrecimiento de todos. 6

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Quizá porque forma parte de su trabajo como presidente de Eurochambres, Leitl se siente optimista. Tanto respecto al difícil acuerdo entre Mercosur y la Unión Europea como a la coyuntura económica latinoamericana. Cree que la situación en Brasil y Argentina, dos países en recesión, no es tan comprometida como podría parecer. “El gobierno de Macri sigue el camino correcto y los sacrificios darán resultado, Argentina cuenta con un potencial humano de excepción; en cuanto a Brasil, me parece que gane quien gane las elecciones se verá obligado a ser pragmático, porque el ejercicio del poder lo impone”. No parece que ese sea el caso de Donald Trump. “No”, reconoce, “Donald Trump es un caso aparte”.

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