WTO Looks to Police Energy Market

The World Trade Organisation's (WTO) director general Pascal Lamy has told a congress including the world's energy leaders that he believes the organsiation can help the energy industry in areas of allocation and trading.

He also urged companies to push the governments of both member and non-member states to take steps to either join the WTO, or ask them to call for the overseeing of the energy trade as an specific industry credential for the body.

"Short of having a specific agreement on energy trade, energy already features in the ongoing Doha negotiations which were launched in 2001," Lamy told the World Energy Congress in Rome today.

"My own consensus today is that energy is a global concern, and so [the WTO] should be one of the solutions."

Several energy-exporting and importing countries have already brought energy to the fore of the WTO's future planning for Doha, which Lemy says is in its "last mile".

At present, the WTO covers a range of issues brought up under the basic rules of trade and energy services, but unlike areas of agriculture, the WTO has no body or ruling looking specifically at the energy sector.

"When the rules proceeded the WTO negotiations 60 years ago on opening trade, energy was not a political highlight - the energy demand was a fraction of today's," Lemy said.

"But under security exceptions, WTO members can take any action considered necessary to protect international interests including those in relation to efficiable materials - many of these rules can become relevant in trade and energy goods."

Lemy says the recent WTO interest by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia and the Ukraine, which he hopes will soon join forces with the economic body, should spur more action by nations to help put forward a notion for governing the energy trade.

Lemy says the organisation could possibly help with a new carbon market, as well as in areas such as biofuels where the needs cross many boundaries, including agriculture.

He says it could also help in markets such as drilling, engineering, construction work for long-distance pipeline mining, wholesale trade and the retention of services.

By Penny Jones