Cablegate: Wto Services Negotiations: Romania Will Not Submit
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS BUCHAREST 000839
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/NCE - WSILKWORTH
STATE FOR EUR/EB/TPP/MTA/MST - JALLEN
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR
USDOC FOR 4232/JBURGESS/JKIMBALL
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ECON RO WTO
SUBJECT: WTO SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS: ROMANIA WILL NOT SUBMIT
ITS OWN OFFER
REF: STATE 058384
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Romania does not plan to submit its own
services offer in May, in view of the country's EU accession
scheduled for 2007, but fully supports a good result of the
WTO negotiations. Romania argues that its future
commitments as a full EU member will dramatically expand
after accession and Romania will then be a party to the
services liberalization that the EU offers. END SUMMARY.
2. (U) EconOff met on April 1, with Minister Delegate for
Trade Iuliu Winkler, Director General for Non-European
Countries Radu Zaharia and Director for Americas Viorel Onel
and, in a separate meeting, with Director General for Trade
Policy Vasile Radu. EconOff urged the GOR officials to
submit a Romanian initial service offer before the May
deadline, pointing out the importance of Romania's active
participation in the WTO process.
3. (SBU) Vasile Radu, the GOR official in charge of WTO
issues, responded in detail to the demarche, stating that
Romania, although not yet a EU member, is acting "de facto"
as one, and has the same high ambitions as the EU and the
U.S. for the liberalization of services. He further
explained that the Romanian position will be subsumed under
the EU's in 2007 when it becomes a full member. At the
moment of accession, the current services covered by the EU
list will be binding for Romania as well. Under these
circumstances, the GOR does not wish to submit a separate
list of offers and to enter separate negotiations outside
the EU common position given it would apply for only a short
period of time.
4. (SBU) Radu continued that, after having seen what
happened with the new member states after the 2004 EU
enlargement, the GOR realized that any specific commitment
which happened to contravene the EU single market
regulations would necessarily be withdrawn after accession.
Romania is trying to avoid having to go through this process
and wants to prepare an accession that is "as smooth as
possible".
5. Expressing quietly his displeasure at Romania's
designation in Reftel talking points as a "developing
country," Radu observed that Romania is acting de facto as a
EU member state, sharing the same philosophy, instruments,
rules and actions. The GOR, he added, has no interest to
present Romania as a model for developing countries, but as
an OECD country.
6. (SBU) COMMENT: There appears little chance for the USG
to convince the GOR to submit its own, independent services
offer. The GOR, as an EU accession candidate country, is
now looking to Brussels for guidance on WTO-related issues.
Nonetheless, the embassy will continue to reiterate to the
GOR that Romania should look after its best interests both
before and after its 2007 EU accession. END COMMENT.
Delare