About the WTO

En 2010, la Division de l'information et des relations extérieures a continué à avoir des contacts réguliers avec les journalistes, à Genève et dans le monde entier. Elle a organisé 36 séances d'information à Genève.

La Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) es el pilar jurídico e institucional del sistema multilateral de comercio. Establece las principales obligaciones contractuales que determinan cómo los gobiernos dan forma a las leyes y reglamentos nacionales en materia de comercio y los aplican. Además sirve de plataforma para el desarrollo de las relaciones comerciales entre los países mediante debates, negociaciones y decisiones colectivos.

Support for developing countries lies at the heart of the WTO’s activities. Much of the work in this area is coordinated by the Committee on Trade and Development, which commemorated its 100th session in 2016.

Rounds are a more controversial topic in the WTO period than they were in the GATT period. The eight that were conducted from the first Geneva Round in 1947 through the Uruguay Round of 1986 to 1994 provided the venues in which the great majority of all multilateral bargains were reached in the GATT system. That is true even for many of the accession negotiations, for while those talks were technically held outside the scope of a round, they often dovetailed with the larger initiative; acceding countries were permitted to engage in the multilateral negotiations, and the terms of their own accessions were often finalized as the end of a round. In the WTO period, by contrast, rounds have come under challenge in two ways. One is through the successes achieved outside of this structure, especially in the sectoral and other deals reached in the period that fell between the end of the Uruguay Round and the launch of the Doha Round. The other is through the apparent (though not definitive) failure of that latter round.

In 2015, the Trade Negotiations Committee and its subsidiary bodies focused on delivering meaningful outcomes for the Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in December. In the first half of the year, WTO members focused on preparing a post-Bali work programme. Although members ultimately failed to establish this programme, they redoubled efforts in the second half of the year to deliver substantive outcomes in Nairobi. Negotiations at the Ministerial Conference concluded with six ministerial decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to least developed countries, known collectively as the “Nairobi Package”. Ministers also issued a declaration on the future of the WTO and members’ divergent views on the Doha Round.

Since 2009, more than 5,000 support measures for a host of environmental objectives have been notified to the WTO.

En 2009, il a été fait appel de trois rapports de groupes spéciaux auprès de l'Organe d'appel, sur un total de cinq rapports susceptibles de faire l'objet d'un appel. L'un de ces appels portait sur des procédures de groupe spécial initial. Deux autres portaient sur des procédures de groupe spécial au titre de l'article 21 :5 (Surveillance de la mise en oeuvre des recommandations et décisions) du Mémorandum d'accord sur le règlement des différends (Mémorandum d'accord), concernant des affaires dans lesquelles les parties n'étaient pas d'accord sur le point de savoir si la décision initiale du groupe spécial avait été correctement mise en oeuvre.

En 2012, el Consejo General aprobó el conjunto de documentos de la adhesión de la República Democrática Popular Lao (Laos) y el de la adhesión de Tayikistán. Ambos países pasaron oficialmente a ser Miembros de la OMC a principios de 2013, tras haber notificado a la Organización que sus parlamentos habían ratificado sus respectivos Protocolos de Adhesión. En los Protocolos de Adhesión se recogen los compromisos asumidos respecto de todas las normas de la OMC.

In 2010 the work on Aid for Trade in the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) focused on implementation of the 2010-11 Aid for Trade work programme, which embraces a wide range of partners and organizations. The WTO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also began preparations for the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade, planned for July 2011.

La OMC ha tenido seis directores generales desde su establecimiento. El primer Director General de la Organización fue Peter Sutherland, quien ocupó el cargo de enero a abril de 1995. Lo sucedieron Renato Ruggiero (1995-1999), Mike Moore (1999-2002) y Supachai Panitchpakdi (2002-2005). Pascal Lamy es el Director General que más tiempo ha estado en el puesto, desde 2005 hasta 2013. Roberto Azevêdo ocupó el cargo desde el 1 de septiembre de 2013 hasta el hasta agosto de 2020.

This book is a history in form but a biography in spirit. That term is technically inaccurate, as one cannot literally write the record of a life for something that does not live. To the extent that we can speak of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as if it were living, however, it is still young. In most of its members, the WTO would barely be of legal age to drink, drive and vote. It has nevertheless been around long enough to permit preliminary assessments of those events that have changed the composition of its membership and altered the ways that those members interact with one another. An underlying theme of this study is that the character of an international organization represents more than the sum of its parties, being the institutional embodiment of specific ideas and aspirations. The fact that the membership of the WTO is virtually identical to that of several other international organizations that deal with global economic issues does not mean that their members meet in these different institutions with identical aims or that they deal with one another in these forums in identical ways. In 18 years of practice, and in its inheritance from a half-century of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and two centuries of trade diplomacy before that, the WTO has received and developed a character that sets it apart from all other global institutions.

Il y a plusieurs manières de considérer l’Organisation mondiale du commerce. C’est une organisation qui s’occupe de l’ouverture commerciale. C’est une enceinte où les gouvernements négocient des accords commerciaux. C’est un lieu où ils règlent leurs différends commerciaux. C’est une organisation qui administre un ensemble de règles commerciales. L’OMC est essentiellement un lieu où les gouvernements Membres tentent de régler les problèmes commerciaux qui les opposent.

Historically, governments have intervened in the agriculture sector more than in other sectors. Agriculture was always covered by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which entered into force in 1948. But numerous exemptions meant agricultural trade escaped most of the disciplines that applied more generally to trade in industrial products. The result was the widespread use of measures that obstructed imports — import bans, limits on quantities that could be imported (quotas), high import duties, import duties whose rates varied and so created market uncertainty, minimum import prices, and various impediments not related to tariffs such as regulations and the activities of state trading enterprises. Major agricultural products such as cereals, meat, dairy, sugar and a range of fruits and vegetables faced trade barriers on a scale unseen in the rest of merchandise trade.

In Part II of this book, the authors discuss the accomplishments and future challenges facing the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its dispute settlement mechanism. In this chapter, I present my observations on the subject of East Asian participation in the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO. By East Asia, I mean the region encompassing the five WTO Members of Northeast Asia (that is, Japan, China, Korea, Chinese Taipei, and Hong Kong, China) and the ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam). As most countries in this region were latecomers to the multilateral trading system, their participation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its dispute settlement system was marginal. Their role in the WTO has increased considerably in all aspects of its work, including in its strengthened dispute settlement system. As most of the countries in East Asia are now WTO Members, their participation in the dispute settlement mechanism is likely to expand in the future.

En 2009, le Bureau de l'audit interne (BAI) a publié un rapport sur la politique de l'OMC en matière de voyages, a réalisé deux audits de suivi sur les achats, a examiné les pratiques actuelles en matière de délégation de pouvoir et a rédigé un projet de guide de la politique et des procédures en matière d'audit interne destiné au personnel.

El Programa de Cátedras OMC (PCO), que tiene por objeto respaldar y promover actividades académicas relacionadas con el comercio en universidades e instituciones de investigación de países en desarrollo y PMA, entró en su segunda fase en 2014 con la incorporación de 7 instituciones más al grupo de 14 que ya participaban en el Programa.

Lorsque le rapport de l’année dernière a été rédigé, il y avait un an seulement que la crise financière asiatique avait éclaté. À cette époque, on s’inquiétait encore beaucoup du risque de contagion et de grave récession. Une année plus tard, la situation est plus saine, mais seuls les optimistes invétérés contesteraient la nécessité de faire preuve de vigilance. Des problèmes importants subsistent et la reprise est loin d’être totale. La croissance du PIB au niveau mondial s’est fortement ralentie après avoir atteint un niveau record l’année précédente, cependant que la croissance du volume des échanges a diminué de plus de la moitié. Dans certaines parties de l’Asie, en raison d’un affaiblissement de la croissance de la production, la croissance du volume des importations est devenue négative. Les résultats économiques des autres régions ont contribué a maintenir une croissance de la production mondiale d’environ 2 pour cent et une croissance des exportations mondiales d’environ 4 pour cent en 1998. Aux États-Unis, l’expansion est demeurée exceptionnelle, contribuant pour une large part au chiffre global. Dans l’Union européenne, la progression a été moindre, mais supérieure à la moyenne mondiale.

The economies of least-developed countries (LDCs) had been steadily improving until the global economic meltdown in 2008 and are currently on the path of a faltering recovery. Growth is still being generated mainly by exports of raw materials and semi-processed products to the markets of developed countries and major emerging economies.

In 2015, the WTO received 16 new notifications about regional trade agreements (RTAs), down from 22 in 2014. The notifications involved eight new RTAs. Half of the RTAs were between developed and developing partners, maintaining a recent trend. The Asia Pacific region made the highest number of notifications – six RTAs – while the Americas made notifications about three RTAs. At the Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, ministers called for a discussion of the systemic implications of RTAs for the multilateral trading system.

Over the course of four meetings in 2011, the Council for Trade in Goods considered waivers on tariff commitments – collective extensions regarding the on-going harmonization of tariff schedules, and some individual requests – and discussed a number of trade concerns raised by WTO members.

La dixième Conférence ministérielle de l’OMC s’est tenue à Nairobi (Kenya) du 15 au 19 décembre 2015 et a été présidée par Mme Amina C. Mohamed (Kenya).

The end of the Cold War gave rise to renewed optimism about the capacity of multilateral institutions to respond to global political, economic, and social challenges. Within a decade, however, the East/West divide would be replaced by other conflicts, schisms, and complexities – the debate over globalization, the related development challenge, global terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation, and the rise of China as a regional and perhaps global superpower. The politics of multilateralism appear as difficult and fragile as ever – whether the ‘climate change’ negotiations (Kyoto) or the role of the UN Security Council in policing the use of force. Recently, expert commissions have issued reports on reform of two crucial multilateral fora – the United Nations and the World Trade Organization (WTO), a sign of recognition that multilateral institutions must change to respond to new challenges.

The WTO regularly engages in dialogue with non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians, other international organizations, the media and the general public. This dialogue allows for regular exchanges of information and helps to increase awareness of the work of the WTO.

El acceso a los mercados libre de derechos y de contingentes para los países menos adelantados (PMA) y la participación de los países en desarrollo en el sistema multilateral de comercio fueron temas fundamentales en el Comité de Comercio y Desarrollo (CCD). En la Décima Conferencia Ministerial, celebrada en Nairobi, se reafirmó el compromiso de los Ministros a hacer frente a la “marginación” de los PMA en el comercio internacional. Los Ministros también adoptaron decisiones que benefician específicamente a los PMA, por ejemplo sobre normas de origen preferenciales mejoradas y trato preferencial a los proveedores de servicios de los PMA. El Comité acordó que la Secretaría de la OMC debía actualizar su informe sobre la aplicación de las disposiciones sobre trato especial y diferenciado establecidas en los Acuerdos y decisiones de la OMC.

The WTO’s Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC) undertook 321 technical assistance activities in 2015 aimed at helping government officials gain a better understanding of WTO rules and the multilateral trading system. Approximately 14,900 participants benefited from these training activities, up from 14,700 in 2014. Least-developed countries (LDCs) were the recipients of 52 per cent of all technical assistance activities. Nearly half of the participants accessed training through e-learning resources on the WTO’s online platform.

The WTO Secretariat, with offices in Geneva, has 646 staff on the regular budget and is headed by Director-General Pascal Lamy. The secretariat has no decision-making powers as all decisions in the WTO are taken by members.

La Secretaría está dirigida por el Director General Roberto Azevêdo, que tomó posesión de su cargo por un período de cuatro años el 1º de septiembre de 2013. Tras un proceso de selección llevado a cabo a finales de 2016, los Miembros de la OMC acordaron designar al Sr. Azevêdo para un segundo mandato que comenzará en septiembre de 2017. El 1º de octubre de 2013 iniciaron sus mandatos los cuatro Directores Generales Adjuntos: Yonov Frederick Agah, de Nigeria; Karl Brauner, de Alemania; David Shark, de los Estados Unidos; y Yi Xiaozhun, de China (véase el gráfico 1). En 2016, el número de funcionarios de la OMC se redujo de 647 a 628 y para cubrir esas vacantes se ha puesto en marcha un proceso de contratación.

An important task facing the WTO is that of making the new multilateral trading system truly global in scope and application. The 140 Members of the WTO (as of 31 December 2000) account for more than 90% of world trade. Many of the nations that remain outside the world trade system have requested accession to the WTO and are at various stages of a process that has become more complex because of the WTO’s increased coverage relative to GATT. With many of the candidates currently undergoing a process of transition from centrallyplanned to market economies, accession to the WTO offers these countries - in addition to the usual trade benefits -a way of underpinning their domestic reform processes.

Some WTO members applied new trade-restrictive measures in 2013 but countries generally resisted domestic pressures to erect trade barriers. The new measures added to the existing stock of trade restrictions and distortions. Global economic growth remained slow and uneven and this weighed heavily on world trade flows. The volume of world merchandise trade is expected to have grown by 2.5 per cent in 2013 and to grow by 4.5 per cent in 2014, which remains below historical trends.

This chapter is a personal reflection on my association with the Appellate Body of the WTO for over eight years in its formative or ‘teething’ period. My association with that august body began on 1 June 2000 and ended on 31 July 2008 after I completed my work as a member of the division selected to consider the appeal in US – Customs Bond Directive. The Appellate Body had begun its work in 1996, and when I joined it four years later, appeal No. 32, Canada – Patent Term, was before it. I became a member of the division deciding that appeal – my first case as a member of a division of the Appellate Body. And when I left the WTO in July 2008, I was a member of the division that heard appeal No. 88, US – Customs Bond Directive. I was thus associated with fifty-seven appeals decided by the Appellate Body over that eight-year period, in which I served as a member or presiding member of the division in about twenty-two appeals. I also served as an arbitrator to determine the reasonable period of time needed for implementation of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) rulings in three cases.

The year 2003 has been marked by important achievements as well as some disappointments for the multilateral trading system and for the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).

In 2016, the WTO made further improvements to its statistical products. The Integrated Trade Intelligence Portal (I-TIP) was updated to increase the range of information available and the WTO’s flagship statistical publication – the “World Trade Statistical Review” – was revamped. Improvements were also made to the WTO’s two other annual statistical publications, “Trade Profiles” and “World Tariff Profiles”. The WTO hosted three major statistical events during the year.

As part of the discussion on treaty interpretation by international courts and adjudication bodies such as the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), this contribution addresses treaty interpretation methods of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

En 2011, le Comité du commerce et de l'environnement a encore accordé une attention particulière à l'incidence des mesures environnementales sur l'accès aux marchés, notamment pour les pays en développement, et aux situations dans lesquelles l'élimination ou la réduction des restrictions et distorsions des échanges peut profiter à la fois au commerce, à l'environnement et au développement. Les discussions ont aussi porté sur le soutien mutuel entre le commerce et le changement climatique. Le Secrétariat de l'OMC a préparé une communication pour la Conférence des Nations Unies sur le développement durable (Rio+20), qui contient une série de messages sur le développement durable et le commerce qui pourront être délivrés à la Conférence, organisée au Brésil en juin 2012.

Los ganadores del Premio OMC de Ensayo para Jóvenes Economistas de 2010, anunciados en septiembre, fueron Dave Donaldson, del Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Estados Unidos) y Olena Ivus, de la Queen’s University (Canadá). El jurado decidió concederles el premio ex aequo.

Les Membres de l’OMC ont centré leurs travaux sur la mise en oeuvre des décisions adoptées aux Conférences ministérielles de Nairobi et de Bali et sur l’examen des résultats possibles pour la onzième Conférence ministérielle, qui se tiendra à Buenos Aires en décembre 2017.

Le Conseil du commerce des services s’est efforcé d’encourager le recours à la dérogation concernant les services pour les pays les moins avancés (PMA), qui vise à aider les PMA à jouer un rôle plus actif dans le commerce mondial des services. À la fin de l’année, le Conseil avait reçu 21 notifications des Membres de l’OMC qui accordent un traitement préférentiel aux services des PMA. La dixième Conférence ministérielle, à Nairobi, a prorogé la dérogation de quatre ans, jusqu’en 2030. Le Conseil a aussi examiné la question du commerce électronique et l’évolution des politiques en matière de commerce des services.

La Novena Conferencia Ministerial de la OMC, celebrada en Bali a finales de 2013, concluyó con la aprobación por los Ministros del “Paquete de Bali”, una serie de decisiones que abarcan la facilitación del comercio, la agricultura y el desarrollo. En la Conferencia, además, los Ministros aprobaron la adhesión del Yemen a la OMC. La República Democrática Popular Lao y Tayikistán completaron meses antes sus procesos de adhesión, con lo que el número total de Miembros de la OMC asciende a 159. En septiembre, Roberto Azevêdo inició su mandato como sexto Director General de la OMC, sucediendo a Pascal Lamy.

At the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, WTO member governments agreed to launch new trade negotiations. They also agreed to work on other issues, in particular the implementation of the current WTO agreements. The entire package is called the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). The negotiations take place in the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) and its subsidiaries, which are usually regular councils and committees meeting in ‘special session’ or specially created negotiating groups. The Chairs of the nine negotiating bodies report to the TNC, chaired by the WTO Director-General, which coordinates their work.

En 2012, les négociateurs ont poursuivi leurs efforts pour sortir de l’impasse le Programme de Doha pour le développement, et des progrès ont été accomplis dans un certain nombre de domaines, comme la facilitation des échanges, l’agriculture et le règlement des différends.

En el Quinto Examen Global de la Ayuda para el Comercio, celebrado en la OMC en junio-julio, se puso de relieve la forma en que los elevados costos del comercio están menoscabando la capacidad de los países en desarrollo para aprovechar las oportunidades de acceso a los mercados. En el Examen se contó con más de 1.500 participantes y se hizo la presentación de una nueva publicación conjunta de la OCDE y la OMC en la que se resume el impacto de la iniciativa de Ayuda para el Comercio.

Le Conseil des ADPIC a continué à promouvoir la transparence des régimes de propriété intellectuelle des Membres de l’OMC et a examiné la mise en oeuvre de l’Accord sur les ADPIC. Il a examiné différentes questions, notamment l’accès aux médicaments, la biodiversité, les connaissances traditionnelles, la brevetabilité du vivant, les biotechnologies et la coopération technique. Le Conseil a prorogé jusqu’à janvier 2033 une dérogation en faveur des pays les moins avancés (PMA) qui doivent appliquer les dispositions de l’Accord sur les ADPIC relatives aux brevets pour les produits pharmaceutiques. Il a en outre recommandé l’adoption pour ces pays d’une dérogation parallèle aux obligations énoncées dans deux autres dispositions de l’Accord relatives aux produits pharmaceutiques. Le Conseil a examiné différents aspects de la politique d’innovation, notamment le rôle de la propriété intellectuelle dans le financement de l’innovation.