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WTO Members Disagree on External Transparency One of the key guidelines of the Summit of the Americas process and the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is compliance with WTO rules and regulations. The Summit countries have agreed in principle to increase the transparency of their negotiations to strengthen democracy and allow for further input from civil society actors. During the 1994 Miami Summit, the heads of state declared that "democracy is strengthened by the modernization of the state, including reforms that streamline operations, reduce and simplify government rules and procedures, and make democratic institutions more transparent and accountable" (http://www.summit-americas.org/miamidec.htm). If the WTO is able to institutionalize an effective process that guarantees or at least increases external transparency, the Summit process will benefit as well. At present, the WTO addresses external transparency only in the context of other issues. Member countries are divided about the benefit of making it a separate agenda item. Furthermore, it is unclear how this goal would be put into practice. According to the BRIDGES report, Canada, the United States and the European Commission favor "document de-restriction and the establishment of a mechanism for parliamentary input into the WTO." Some developing countries, including Egypt, Pakistan and Mexico, oppose the idea of external transparency per se, arguing that it "would undermine the 'intergovernmental nature' of the organization." Despite these differences, BRIDGES reported "general agreement among members that they would conduct further outreach at their domestic levels on their own terms." The WTO itself was asked to conduct more outreach via seminars and workshops and improved Internet access to its work. BRIDGES Weekly
Trade News Digest, vol. 4, no. 43 (14 November, 2000).
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