INTERNATIONAL TRADE PRACTICES AND TRENDS- WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION Lecture No.

15 New Issues and Doha Development Agenda Cross Cutting and New Issues 1. regional economic groupings: only one WTO member Mongolia was not party to a regional trade agreement; normally, setting up a customs union or free trade area would violate the WTOs principle of equal treatment for all trading, but GATTs Article 24 allows regional trading arrangements to be set up as a special exception; Regional Trade Agreements Committee: purpose is to examine regional groups and to assess whether they are consistent with WTO rules. 2. trade and the environment: multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs); 200 international agreements (outside the WTO) dealing with various environmental issues currently in force: Montreal Protocol for the protection of the ozone layer, the Basel Convention on the trade or transportation of hazardous waste across international borders, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Recent cases: United States Import Prohibition of Certain Shrimp and Shrimp Products, and yellowfin tuna and dolphin; Eco-labelling: good, if it doesnt discriminate 3. competition policy: Singapore issues (Investment, competition, procurement, simpler procedures); one third of the $6.1 trillion total for world trade in goods and services in 1995 was trade within companies for example between subsidiaries in different countries or between a subsidiary and its headquarters; trade facilitation: simplifying trade procedures, making trade flow more smoothly through means that go beyond the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers 4. electronic commerce: WTO members a agreed to continue their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions 5. trade and labour rights: all WTO member governments are committed to a narrower set of internationally recognized core standards freedom of association, no forced labour, no child labour, and no discrimination at work (including gender discrimination); identified the International Labour Organization (ILO) as the competent body to negotiate labour standards. Doha Development Agenda (DDA) - Cancun Meeting: soured by discord on agricultural issues, including cotton, and ended in deadlock on the Singapore issues - Implementation is short-hand for developing countries problems in implementing the current WTO Agreements, i.e. the agreements arising from the Uruguay Round negotiations; The main preoccupations of developing countries before another meeting is set - Reasons for the fresh round of trade agreements: to preserve the last vestiges of multilateral cooperation; a conscious attempt had been made to improve decision-making processes and improve its external transparency with improved information availability for NGOs and coalitions of developing countries broke ranks in the endgame. Developing Countries: In the agreements: more time, better terms; Legal assistance: a Secretariat service, committees, technical cooperation Coalitions: LMG, G20, Core Group, Alliance on Strategic Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism, G90 (Please read the details) Sources of problems in WTO: 1. the persistence of obsolete methods of decision-making (how question), 2. what exactly wto is doing (what question)3. to whom the wto is really accountable to (who question) 1. medieval organization (Pascal lamy): proposals for 1. a board resembling the UN security council (with permanent members, regional representation, and rotation of non-permanent members, Canada. 2) Glass room (Mexico), 3. informal steering committee, 4. consultative board (problems in consultative board: 1. binding nature and intrusive potentials of WTO rules, consultative phase of the negotiations is also the agenda-setting one, 2. Non-permanent seats based on regional representation are especially unlikely to work given the vast differences that exist even within regions when it comes to specific issue areas. 3 creations of an advisory board would formalise the exclusion of a large number of members from the process of consultations), Rege proposal: Informal steering committee at the beginning of each year. 2. diplomatic flexibility versus rules-based certainty: 1. LMG: any negotiation procedure to be adopted should be approved by Members by consensus in formal meetings: the need for rules certainty and 10 mainstream NGOs: meetings should all be official with minutes taken down and circulated to members for amendments or confirmation, 2. 8 country (Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland) proposal: importance of flexibility in a memberdriven organization two divergent views: 1) lmg-type view a limited technocratic organization with a well-circumscribed mandate and tightly bound by a clearly specified rules and procedure, 2) developing country view is one of an expansive organization that cuts across issue area and is driven by politics rather than technicalities and detailed rules. It is also one that relies significantly on flexibility of negotiating procedure, small group meetings within and outside the WTO and considerable political involvement 3. Questioning the mandate: Catch 22: if the wto slows the pace of the negotiations, it risks losing the commitment of its developed countries, if it continues with the expansion, however in line with the agenda of the developed countries, it risks the further marginalization of the majority of its members and a further decline in the legitimacy of its decisions. Solutions: dismantling the single undertaking and its replacement with multiple tracks based on variable geometry ( EU expansion mechanism). NGOs: too narrow focused on trade; trade should be balanced by human rights, environment, labour standards, gender and income inequalities within states, development and so forth.

reducing the democratic deficit: solutions: increased ministerial or parliamentary involvement; greater participation of NGOs improved NGO access to documents but NGOs may not be representative at all of the people.