40. The representative of Australia said that the discussions during this meeting had confirmed his worse fears that the EC paper would confuse issues as trying to lump together negotiation and non-negotiation issues. After noting that the delegations of Turkey and Switzerland had discussed extension, he thanked the Chair for clarifying that extension was not an issue for discussion in this forum.
41. As to the statement made by the European Communities that they were willing to engage on the joint proposal at the last meeting, he said that in reality what the European Communities had done was simply to put a number of points on the table that were not different from the ones they had already advanced on many previous occasions, and to conclude that the joint proposal was not a basis for negotiations. In fact, his delegation had difficulties in understanding in what exactly the European Communities wanted to engage. The suggestion that perhaps Members could just discuss the annex of document TN/IP/W/11 was unacceptable since Members could not just pretend that such a proposal only applied to wines and spirits. He therefore encouraged the European Communities to recast its proposal in a way that would enable Members to discuss it in the present forum.
