Economic research and trade policy analysis
Governments, Non-State Actors and Trade Policy-Making
One of the most pressing issues confronting the multilateral trade system is the challenge posed by the rapid proliferation of preferential trade agreements. Much has been written about why governments might choose to negotiate preferentially or multilaterally, but until now it has been written almost exclusively from the perspective of governments. We know very little about how non-state actors view this issue of ‘forum choice’, or how they position themselves to influence choices by governments about whether to emphasize PTAs or the WTO.
Foreword
This volume is a joint project of the International Labour Office and the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization. The International Chamber of Commerce Research Foundation provided funding, for which we would like to express our appreciation. This work follows up on two prior joint publications by the ILO and the WTO Secretariats – a review of the literature on trade and employment in 2007 and a report on the linkages between trade and informal employment in 2009.
Executive summary
This publication explains how international food safety standards are set through the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Food Standards Programme – the Codex Alimentarius Commission – and how these standards are applied in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement).
Domestic regulations and India’s trade in health services: A study of hospital and telemedicine services
Estimated at US$36 billion and employing over four million people, the Indian health care sector is one of the largest service sectors in the economy today. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent, the Indian health care sector is expected to reach US$280 billion by 2020. A 2003 report titled India’s New Opportunity: 2020, prepared jointly by the All India Management Association, Boston Consulting Group and the Confederation of Indian Industries, predicts that over 40 million new jobs and US$200 billion increased revenues are expected to be generated by the Indian services sector by 2020, and the health care sector will play an important role in generating these jobs and revenues (AIMA/BCG 2003). Hence, this sector is predicted to grow rapidly and is seen to have considerable potential due to the growing demand for health care services in India. The reasons are many, including rising incomes, a growing propensity to spend on health care, an emergence of lifestyle-related diseases, and demographics.
Executive summary
Natural resources represent a significant and growing share of world trade, and properly managed, can provide a variety of products that contribute greatly to the quality of human life. They also present particular challenges for policy makers.
Introduction
The annual value of trade in agricultural products has grown almost three-fold over the past decade, largely in emerging economies and developing countries, reaching USD 1.7 trillion. Over the past two decades, the reduction in tariffs through global and regional trade agreements has provided greater opportunities for the expansion of global food trade. However, in order to trade internationally and access markets for high-value products, producers must be able to meet food standards. Governments apply food standards to ensure that food is safe, and meets quality and labelling requirements. The use of international food standards worldwide helps reduce trade costs by making trade more transparent and efficient, allowing food to move more smoothly between markets.
Aid for Trade and international cooperation for middle-income countries: the case of Chile
For many developing states which have experienced a substantial decline in their share of world trade and global value added, Aid for Trade (AFT) initiatives have become a critical source of support in a context where these countries suffer from both market and government failure. As such, the key issue is whether AFT programmes, as currently configured, are the right policy instrument or set of instruments to address the weak participation of developing countries in global trade and global value chains. In many regards, the problem relates to an overdependence on a narrow range of exports (e.g. agricultural and resource-based commodities and low value-added manufacturing goods and services) that are faced with declining terms of trade, tariff progressivity and diminishing economic returns (Reinert, 2007). One of the key criticisms that has emerged is that the focus of AFT donors and relevant implementing agencies has been heavily weighted on the architecture of trade support programmes and not sufficiently on industrial upgrading and enterprise development (Cirera, 2009).
The Institutional Framework
Trade can be more complicated than we think. What happens when two countries define the same product differently or if they set out different criteria to check that a product is safe? Let us think, for example, of the inconvenience as a traveller in havin 15 different types of electrical outlet plugs in the world, or the enormous infrastructure investment required for train cargo and passengers to travel across the border between two countries that have different track gauge. Then consider the benefits of being able to plug in and use a USB key with any computer worldwide or the advantages of standard cables, standard operating systems or the standard size of a credit card.
Reasonableness, impartiality and objectivity
Similar to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) imposes requirements of reasonableness and impartiality on World Trade Organization (WTO) members with respect to their administration of certain measures. This general obligation of procedural fairness offers a potentially powerful mechanism for ensuring equitable treatment for traded services and service suppliers beyond the substantive disciplines of WTO law, such as those related to discrimination. Yet, the provision has been subject to relatively little extended commentary or jurisprudence, perhaps because of an underlying concern about the sovereignty implications of WTO dispute settlement organs assessing the reasonableness of WTO members’ administration.
Trade and trade policy developments
The expansion of global output and trade gained considerable momentum in the second half of 2003 resulting in an annual average increase of world GDP and world merchandise exports of 2.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively. These changes represent stronger than expected improvements when compared with the preceding year although trade growth remained below the average rate recorded in the 1990s. These annual results were negatively affected by a combination of unusual, temporary factors and longer-term structural weaknesses in a number of major economies (in particular the state of the banking system in Japan and the labour markets in Western Europe). One of the influencing temporary factors was the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in East Asia. Although SARS remained a limited epidemic relative to malaria and the acquired immunity deficiency syndrome (AIDS), it had a dramatic short-term impact on the movement of people and on the tourism industry in the region. The build up of tensions resulting in the military conflict in Iraq weakened consumer and business confidence in many regions in the first quarter of the year. In OECD countries the composite leading (business) indicator hit its lowest level in March 2003 then displayed a trend increase from May 2003 onwards. The major stock markets showed a similar development, dropping sharply until March but recovering thereafter and then expanding sharply until the end of the year.
Preface
In the last three to four decades, government and business have been part of a far-reaching economic transformation, made possible by remarkable advances in information, communication and transport technologies. The proliferation of internationally joined-up production arrangements – that is, global supply chains – has changed our economic and political landscape in fundamental ways.
Eurasian Economic Union integration: Timetable, priorities and challenges
This chapter focuses on the objectives of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation within the multilateral trading system. The EAEU has become one of the largest trading blocs in the world, with a land area of more than 20 million square kilometres and a population of more than 176 million people. This chapter analyses the history of Eurasian integration and presents its current status, as well as the prospects of the Eurasian Economic Union for 2015.
Conclusiones
El progreso tecnológico ha moldeado siempre la estructura del sistema de comercio mundial. La tecnología no es solo un factor determinante de los costos del comercio, sino que también define qué productos se pueden comercializar a través de las fronteras e influye en las tendencias de la ventaja comparativa.
The 2012 WTO accession of Russia: Negotiating experience – challenges, opportunities and post-accession approaches
The working party on the accession of Russia was the biggest and longest in WTO accession history. A big power that decides to join an international organisation, even if this is the WTO, cannot avoid political burdens. No big country can stay apart from world politics. The WTO accession process is tough, demanding and complex, with no clear rules. This raises questions about length, fairness and lack of procedural clarity. Yet it is risky to stay outside the rules-based multilateral trading system. To navigate the WTO accession process, upfront, it is critical to define a negotiating strategy and plan the end-game well in advance – a process that requires mobilisation of all negotiating resources, concentration and focus. Domestically, the challenge for the acceding government is to state a clear rationale for accession, demonstrate that there will be real benefits from accession or at a minimum, that there will be no negative consequences, and define red lines to be defended. Negotiating positions should be aligned with requirements for domestic reform. Strong and consistent political will and leadership with support from the parliamentary majority are necessary to conclude any accession negotiations. WTO accession may, in itself, play neither a negative nor a positive role for domestic economic developments, but by becoming a member, a country will obtain benefits in the medium and long term, through the creation of better terms for its trade within the WTO itself. In this chapter, Russia’s practical experience of its accession negotiation, the obstacles encountered, its assessment of the benefits of accession, including lessons learned during the process, are described.
Résumé analytique
Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2009 porte essentiellement sur certaines mesures contingentes auxquelles les Membres de l’OMC peuvent recourir lors de l’ importation et de l’exportation de marchandises. Le cadre juridique de ces mesures est beaucoup moins développé dans le domaine du commerce des services, mais il est également examiné.