[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 43 (Monday, November 1, 1999)]
[Pages 2164-2165]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Joint Declaration by President William Jefferson Clinton and European 
Commission President Romano Prodi

October 27, 1999

    1. President Clinton and President Prodi held a wide-ranging 
discussion on 27 October about the prospects for launching a new Round 
of trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) next month 
at Seattle. There was an essential overlap of interests and a desire to 
collaborate closely to bridge remaining differences.
    2. They recalled the EU-U.S. Bonn Declaration of June 1999, where we 
agreed that ``together we can advance our shared values, our common 
security and our mutual prosperity more effectively than either of us 
alone. Together . . . we can face . . . the complexity of ensuring that 
democracy and free markets improve tangibly the lives of people in a 
rapidly globalizing world.''
    3. Mindful of the essential role played by the multilateral trading 
system in supporting over the last 50 years the greatest economic 
expansion in history and more recently in containing the adverse impacts 
of economic downturns in Asia and elsewhere, the two leaders agreed to 
strive to secure agreement in Seattle to launch a new Round of global 
trade negotiations.
    4. Their discussions concentrated on the possible topics for a new 
Round and how to provide momentum for a successful launch at Seattle. 
Not only agriculture and services, but a number of other issues need to 
be included, to meet the U.S. and EU's respective interests and those of 
our partners, but also to ensure that the WTO continues to be a leading 
part of the solution to the problems that will confront the global 
economy in the next century. In this respect, they discussed topics such 
as comprehensive market access; greater coherence in international 
economic policy making to complement and enhance the work underway in 
the Bretton Woods institutions and other UN agencies; government 
procurement (including transparency and market access); foreign direct 
investment; electronic commerce (including extension of the moratorium 
agreed last May); competition; trade facilitation; trade-related

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intellectual property rights protection (TRIPS); technical barriers to 
trade; and the issue of early agreements, provisional where necessary. 
While differences remain between the United States and the European 
Union as to the most appropriate scope for the forthcoming negotiations, 
both sides agreed to continue to take forward their discussions in a 
constructive spirit in forthcoming weeks.
    5. The leaders agreed that the new round had to be definitively 
different in content and process from its predecessors. For example, we 
had to take into account the rapid advances in technology, particularly 
related to electronic commerce. They agreed on the goal of better 
addressing the social dimensions of trade by promoting a substantive 
dialogue with our partners, involving the WTO and the ILO, although we 
still differ on the modalities. The dialogue would include an 
examination of the relationship between trade policy, trade 
liberalization, development and fundamental labor rights, so as to 
maximize the benefits of open trade for workers. The two leaders also 
agreed that the new round should enhance the potential for positive 
synergies between trade liberalization, environmental protection and 
economic development.
    6. But the agenda for the new Round also had to address the needs 
and interests of all our partners. Although major players in the world 
economy, the U.S. and EU needed to do more than in previous Rounds to 
work with all our partners in the WTO system. The new Round should offer 
major opportunities to the developing countries, strengthening their 
role in the world economy. Particular attention needs to be paid to the 
least developed countries. Their concerns and interests should be fully 
taken into account, including through specifically targeted, enhanced, 
and effective market access and capacity building.
    7. An additional important new element was to make the multilateral 
trading system as responsive as possible to all our citizens. The two 
leaders agreed to work vigorously to assure the public that the trading 
system and the WTO as an institution works in the broadest interests of 
everyone--and to ensure that this remains the case. Both leaders renewed 
their commitment to the WTO Dispute Settlement System, and agreed that 
WTO decisions should be respected and implemented. The leaders also 
anticipated ratifying at Seattle a package of improvements to the 
Dispute Settlement Understanding. Additionally, they agreed to work 
towards enhanced transparency in the WTO decision-making process.
Washington, D.C.,
27 October 1999

Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this joint declaration.