World Trade Organization

Transcription

1 World Trade Organization Konstantina Gkountaropoulou Rodrigo Ortiz-Mendoza 19 th November 2013 Stefanos Sinos International Agrifood Economics

2 WTO in brief... Is the only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade between nations.its main function is to ensure that the trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

3 What is WTO? The WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. Established at 1st January Was born out of negotiations, and everything the WTO does is the result of negotiations. Located in Geneva, Switzerland Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations ( ). Membership:159 countries (March 2013) Official Languages: English, French and Spanish.

4 What is WTO? Budget:196 million Swiss francs for Head: Roberto Azevêdo (Director-General). Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other..although negotiated and signed by governments, the goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business, while allowing governments to meet social and environmental objectives. Trough WTO is provided neutral procedure based on an agreed legal foundation.

5 o o Functions of WTO: Administering WTO trade agreement Forum for trade negotiations o Monitoring national trade policies o Technical assistance and training for developing countries o Cooperation with other international organizations Things that WTO can do: o o o o o Settle disputes and reduce trade tensions Stimulate economic growth and employment Cut the cost of doing business internationally Encourage good governance Support the environment and health

6 What WTO stands for? 1. Non-discrimination: A country should not discriminate between its trading partners. 1. More open: Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious ways of encouraging trade. 1. Predictable and transparent: Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be raised arbitrarily.

7 1. More competitive: Discouraging unfair practices, such as export subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share. 1. More beneficial for less developed countries: Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges;

8 1. Protect the environment: The WTO s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health.

9 WTO Membership

10 Trade Topics (Goods) Agriculture Negotiations: The Agreement on Agriculture came into effect with the establishment of the WTO at the beginning of The AoA has three central concepts, or "pillars": domestic support, market access and export subsidies. WTO members agreed to initiate negotiations for continuing the agricultural trade reform process one year before the end of the implementation period, by the end of These talks began in early 2000 under the original mandate of Article 20 of the Agriculture Agreement. At the November 2001, Doha Ministerial Conference, the agriculture negotiations became part of the single undertaking in which virtually all the linked negotiations were to end by 1 January 2005 The first major reform was the result of the Uruguay Round negotiations, which produced the present Agriculture Agreement.

11 Agriculture is a sector that members have agreed to reform: it is distorted by subsidies and high trade barriers, affecting access to food, fibres for clothing and other materials, and the livelihoods of farmers around the world. An important area of work in the WTO is monitoring how governments are implementing their obligations under the agreement and discussing issues that arise. Anti-dumping: If a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market, it is said to be dumping the product. The WTO focus is on how governments can or cannot react to dumping,it disciplines anti-dumping actions, and it is often called the Anti-dumping Agreement.

12 Cotton Sub-Committee: Just over a year after it was first proposed in 2003, a Cotton Sub-Committee was set up under the Agriculture Committee s Special Sessions. WTO members on 19 November 2004 set up a body to focus on cotton, as required in the 1 August 2004 decision July Package covering all the WTO negotiations. The agreement to create a body to focus specifically on cotton is part of WTO member governments response to proposals from four African countries Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali to tackle the sector.

13 GATT and the Goods Council :The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) covers international trade in goods. The workings of the GATT agreement are the responsibility of the Council for Trade in Goods (Goods Council) which have representatives from all WTO member countries. The Goods Council has 10 committees dealing with specific subjects. These committees consist of all member countries.the Goods Council are a working party on state trading enterprises, and the ITA. Information Technology Agreement (ITA): The Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products (ITA). Is represented about 97 per cent of world trade in information technology products. The ITA provides for participants to completely eliminate duties on IT products covered by the Agreement.

14 Market access for goods : means the conditions, tariff and non-tariff measures, agreed by members for the entry of specific goods into their markets. Tariff commitments for goods are set out in each member's commitments not to apply tariffs above the listed rates. Rules of origin :Determining where a product comes from is no longer easy when raw materials and parts criss-cross the globe to be used as inputs in scattered manufacturing plants. Preshipment Inspection :The practice of employing private companies to check shipment details. The Agreement on PSI recognizes that principles of the GATT Agreement apply to such activities.

15 Measures Safeguard measures: A WTO member may take a safeguard action to protect a specific domestic industry from an increase in imports of any product which is causing, or which is threatening to cause, serious injury to the industry. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures:an agreement on how governments can apply food safety and animal and plant health measures sets out the basic rules in the WTO. Subsidies and countervailing measures: disciplines the use of subsidies, and it regulates the actions countries can take to counter the effects of subsidies. 1. Rules Negotiations 2. Preshipment Inspection

16 Trade Topics (Services) o The largest and most dynamic component of both developed and developing country economies. Important in their own right, they also serve as crucial inputs into the production of most goods. Their inclusion in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations led to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Since January 2000, they have become the subject of multilateral trade negotiations.

17 Trade Topics (Services) o Schedules of commitments and lists of Article II exemptions During the Uruguay Round of negotiations ( ), participating countries made market-access commitments and exemptions on a number of services sectors at the same time which are contained in their original services schedules. o I-TIP Services: o a joint initiative of the WTO and the World Bank. It is a set of linked databases that provides information on Members' commitments under the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), services commitments in regional trade agreements (RTA), applied measures in services, and services statistics

18 Doha Development Agenda DOHA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA: TRADE NEGOTIATIONS COMMITTEE Agriculture Cotton Services Market access for non-agricultural products (NAMA) Balance between agriculture and NAMA Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) Doha special issue: TRIPS and public health TRIPS, biological diversity and traditional knowledge Relationship between trade and investment Interaction between trade and competition policy Transparency in government procurement

19 Also provides a. Aid for Trade b. Trade and development c. E-learning d. Enhanced Integrated Framework e. Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) f. WTO technical assistance and training

20 Trade monitoring The WTO currently produces two series of "trade monitoring reports": 1.WTO-wide reports on trade-related developments: covering the whole WTO membership and observers joint reports with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on trade and investment measures taken by G-20 economies. 2.WTO-wide reports on trade-related developments: Joint reports on G-20 trade and investment measures, aim of the reports,preparation, discussion of the reports trade Policy Reviews

21 Other topics I. Trade and environment II. Accessions III. Plurilateral agreement on trade in civil aircraft IV. Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy V. Trade and environment VI. Government procurement VII. Trade and Investment VIII. Regional trade agreements and preferential trade arrangements IX. Trade finance (work with other international organizations)

22 Thank you for your attention! Grazie!!