About the WTO

This chapter assesses the trade facilitation performance of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and determines the welfare and sectoral effects of trade facilitation improvements within the context of regional trade integration. It shows that introducing a trade facilitation provision in the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) will lead to a significant welfare increase for all MENA sub-regions compared with a scenario of further trade liberalization without trade facilitation. Trade facilitation in the GAFTA would enhance export competitiveness and lead to a significant increase in overall and intra-trade export value for all countries, but particularly for the Mashreq and Maghreb countries. In the analysis, all sub-regions witnessed an export boost in agro-food product exports, particularly those products in which the Mashreq and Maghreb countries have a comparative advantage. The welfare-enhancing results of this analysis indicate that the MENA region has a high stake in implementing the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA), and should begin with areas that contribute the most to trade cost reduction, such as automation and streamlining of trade procedures.

During 2010 the TRIPS Council reviewed intellectual property legislation in individual countries and discussed the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, TRIPS and public health, technical cooperation and capacity building and a number of other matters, in addition to the issues reported in the section on negotiations.

My work in the WTO as a professional educated in law and economics has been principally concerned with policy development and negotiations in less-established areas of WTO work, as opposed to dispute settlement or legal interpretation as such. It has had two main areas of focus: the interaction of trade and competition policy and international government procurement disciplines, although it has also touched on such disparate matters as the nature and determinants of economic development and the relationship of the organisation’s rules to human rights. It has been genuinely interdisciplinary in nature, involving the use of legal tools and analysis, economic insights, and policy improvisation in roughly equal measures. My years in the WTO have, perhaps, not always borne out Holmes’ dictum that ‘[t]he life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience’,1 though I have much sympathy with that viewpoint. They have, in any case, convinced me that empirical evidence is as important as logic in policy formulation; that progress in the formulation of international policies and legal disciplines will often be by fits and starts; and that the WTO and its rules have a noble mission and a huge contribution to make to human welfare, notwithstanding that the organisation’s role is frequently misunderstood and cannot be separated from broader economic, policy and political exigencies.

Building the trade capacity of developing countries through initiatives such as Aid for Trade was one of the major issues discussed by the Committee on Trade and Development in 2008. During the year, Aid for Trade focused on three clear priorities: Improving monitoring; accelerating implementation of projects; and strengthening developing-country ownership of the initiative. A total of 496 training activities were provided for government officials.

En 2011, le Groupe de travail du commerce, de la dette et des finances a aidé à remédier à certaines carences structurelles sur le marché du financement du commerce. En particulier, lors du Sommet de Séoul, le G-20 a demandé à l'OMC d'« évaluer et de surveiller » l'efficacité des programmes gérés par les banques multilatérales de développement afin de faciliter l'accès des pays à faible revenu au financement du commerce. Les travaux entrepris par l'OMC dans le domaine du financement du commerce ont bénéficié de l'interaction positive entre les Membres de l'OMC et le Groupe d'experts sur le financement du commerce convoqué par le Directeur général.

En 2011, le Comité du budget, des finances et de l'administration a examiné les propositions budgétaires pour la période biennale 2012-2013 pour l'OMC et le Centre du commerce international (ITC) et a étudié les questions relatives aux Membres ayant des arriérés de contributions importants, au projet de construction et aux ressources humaines.

The Ministerial Conference of the WTO, composed of representatives of all the Members, is the highest decision-making body of the organization, and is required to meet at least once every two years. Ministerial Conferences review ongoing work, provide political guidance and direction to that work, and set the agenda for further work as necessary.

En 2011, l'OMC a participé activement à la quatrième Conférence des Nations Unies sur les pays les moins avancés et a intensifié sa coopération avec diverses organisations intergouvernementales, dont l'Organisation des Nations Unies, l'Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE), l'Organisation internationale du travail (OIT), le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) et la Banque mondiale. L'OMC a publié des rapports sur l'évolution du commerce et de l'investissement dans les pays du Groupe des 20 (G-20), en collaboration avec la Conférence des Nations Unies sur le commerce et le développement (CNUCED) et l'OCDE.

The WTO began life on 1 January 1995 but its trading system is half a century older. Since 1948, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had provided the rules for the system. Whereas GATT had mainly dealt with trade in goods, the WTO and its agreements now cover trade in services, and in traded inventions, creations and designs (intellectual property).