About the WTO
Activités de recherche économique
En 2013, le Groupe de la recherche économique de l’OMC a organisé 34 activités, souvent en collaboration avec d’autres institutions. Parmi ces activités, il y a eu des conférences de politique publique, un deuxième Atelier annuel sur le commerce, organisé conjointement par l’OMC, la Banque mondiale et le Fonds monétaire international, le lancement du Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2013, publication phare de l’OMC, et de deux autres publications, et un certain nombre de séminaires et d’ateliers.
WTO essay award for young economists
The WTO Essay Award for Young Economists went in 2012 to American economist Treb Allen for a paper on information frictions in trade. The selection panel also gave a special mention to the work of Pablo Fajgelbaum, an Argentine national, on labour market institutions and international trade.
Informes de vigilancia del comercio
El Director General presentó, en enero, abril, julio y noviembre de 2009, sendos informes amplios sobre la evolución del comercio mundial. El Órgano de Examen de las Políticas Comerciales analizó los cuatro informes en varias reuniones. En ellos se indicaba que, pese a la profundidad de la crisis y el aumento del desempleo, los Miembros de la OMC habían resistido, en general, a las presiones proteccionistas internas y mantenido los mercados abiertos. Tampoco había habido ningún caso importante de retorsión comercial. Sin embargo, algunos aspectos de los programas de estímulo de los países amenazaban distorsionar el comercio, especialmente las políticas de fomento de la compra de productos nacionales vinculadas a algunos programas de gasto público y las ayudas sustanciales otorgadas por algunos gobiernos a los sectores de la banca y del automóvil.
La adhesión a la OMC
En 2016 Liberia y el Afganistán pasaron a ser los Miembros 163º y 164º de la OMC. Los Miembros acordaron iniciar las negociaciones para la adhesión a la OMC de la República Federal de Somalia y la República Democrática de Timor-Leste y otorgarles la condición de observador en la Organización. Las Comoras iniciaron sus negociaciones de adhesión y los grupos de trabajo sobre las adhesiones de Belarús y el Sudán reanudaron su actividad tras una interrupción de 12 y 13 años, respectivamente.
Overview of developments in the international trading environment
For the WTO, the year 2000 was one of stiff challenge and significant opportunity. Stiff challenge due to the events that took place at the Third Ministerial Conference in November 1999 -the failure of the WTO Members to reach a consensus on the launch of a new round of multilateral negotiations, against a background of highly-publicized "anti-globalization" demonstrations in the streets of Seattle - but significant opportunity to effect the changes necessary to better meet the needs of the WTO Members and thereby strengthen the foundations of the trading system.
Acuerdos comerciales regionales
En 2011, la OMC recibió 25 nuevas notificaciones referentes a 15 acuerdos comerciales regionales (ACR), lo que no representó un gran cambio con respecto al año anterior. Poco más de la mitad de los nuevos ACR se concertaron entre asociados en desarrollo y desarrollados, intensificando la tendencia que se había manifestado durante los últimos años. El mayor número de estos acuerdos, ocho, correspondió a la región de las Américas.
Contactos con los parlamentarios
En 2012, la Conferencia Parlamentaria anual sobre la OMC, organizada por la Unión Interparlamentaria (UIP) y el Parlamento Europeo, se celebró en la OMC. La Secretaría de la OMC siguió distribuyendo su boletín periódico a un número cada vez mayor de parlamentarios. También organizó dos talleres regionales para parlamentarios en cooperación con asociados regionales.
WTO Secretariat
The WTO Secretariat is based in the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva. It has 634 staff on the regular budget and is headed by Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, who began his term of office on 1 September 2013. His deputies – the four Deputy Directors-General – began their terms of office on 1 October. They are Yonov Frederick Agah of Nigeria, Karl Brauner of Germany, David Shark of the United States and Xiaozhun Yi of China.
Technical Assistance and Training for Acceding Countries
Accession to the WTO is a complex process and all acceding governments need expert advice to master the WTO rules and obligations, the procedures governing the accession negotiations, the demands that the process makes of them and how to respond to these demands. Applicants are also ipso facto participants in the negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda and need to keep abreast of the issues being dealt with there, as they will be expected to accept the results of these negotiations when they become WTO Members.
Trade facilitation and foreign direct investment flows in Kenya
This chapter examines the effects of trade facilitation on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Kenya. Using bilateral FDI data for the period 2001–2012, a fixed effects Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimation of the gravity model was used in the analysis. The results indicate that improvements of indicators related to the business environment, the quality of port infrastructure, the number of days required for enforcement of contracts and the activities that improve logistics performance, are essential drivers of FDI flows in Kenya. Kenya should therefore enhance efforts to implement trade facilitation measures with a view to deepening integration in global trade and production networks, in order to increase FDI.
Members, coalitions and the trade policy community
The ways that countries represent themselves in Geneva and coordinate action with other members have undergone important changes since the late GATT period. Four trends stand out: more countries have acceded (as discussed in Chapter 4), more of these members have established permanent missions in Geneva, more of those missions are dedicated exclusively to trade rather than to Geneva-based institutions in general, and the number of personnel assigned to both the dedicated missions and the general-purpose missions has risen. The net result was that the total diplomatic manpower that countries deployed in Geneva grew more than five-fold from 1982 to 2012. The composition of the Geneva negotiating community also evolved. Whereas the Quad (Canada, the European Union, Japan and the United States) had once dominated GATT, and were almost alone in having large and GATT-dedicated missions, many more negotiators now hail from developing countries. That is true not just for the largest emerging economies but also for several other developing country members that “punch above their weight” in the organization.
What is the role of the WTO in furthering members’ environmental policies?
The WTO advocates for rules-based trade, not free-for-all trade. WTO rules, by providing predictability and ensuring that protectionism is not introduced through the back door, contribute to more effective and coherent environment-related trade policies.