Trade monitoring
Responses to Trade Opening: Evidence and Lessons from Asia
Over the last 3 decades, several developing countries have liberalized their trade regimes. This may have happened either due partially to conditionalities imposed by international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund in response to emergency requests for loans, in the context of a country’s accession to the World Trade Organization, or as a result of the signature of a preferential trade agreement. In many cases, the reforms may have stemmed from a country’s own disappointment with its growth performance during its import substitution phase. While movement toward free trade is expected to expand the size of the overall economic pie, such changes always produce both losers and winners. In fact, it is this creation of winners and losers, along with “individualspecific uncertainty” (Fernandez and Rodrik 1991) about who benefits and who loses from reforms, that has led to the delays in trade reforms, appropriately called “status quo bias.”
Activités de recherche économique
En 2014, la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques de l’OMC a organisé plus de 20 activités, souvent en collaboration avec d’autres institutions. Parmi ces activités, il y a eu des conférences sur les politiques publiques, le lancement du Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2014, publication phare de l’OMC, le troisième Atelier annuel sur le commerce, organisé conjointement par l’OMC, la Banque mondiale et le Fonds monétaire international, et un certain nombre de séminaires et d’ateliers. Les économistes de l’OMC ont présenté les chiffres de la croissance du commerce mondial en 2014 et ont leurs prévisions pour 2015 (voir la page 82).
Introducción
Los nuevos Perfiles comerciales contienen información detallada sobre las corrientes del comercio de mercancías, incluidos los principales productos con que comercia cada economía, una sección más amplia sobre el comercio de servicios comerciales y estadísticas sobre propiedad intelectual. Esta información, que está a disposición de los Miembros de la OMC, los observadores ante la Organización y otras economías determinadas, proviene de múltiples fuentes, como las estadísticas aduaneras, las cuentas nacionales, las estadísticas sobre la balanza de pagos, el comercio de servicios de filiales extranjeras, las inversiones extranjeras directas (IED) y la propiedad industrial. Los datos se han obtenido de la Secretaría de la OMC y de fuentes externas. Se presentan en un formato normalizado y fácil de visualizar, para su rápida consulta.
Overview of developments in the international trading environment
Although the path of world trade growth has been uneven in the past few years (contraction in 1998, rebound in 1999 and 2000, followed by a slowdown in 2001), the fact that trade continued to expand faster than output is indicative of the increasing openness of national economies. Part of this development is due to the gradual but continued trend towards more liberal trade policies around the world. Fears that the failure of the Third Ministerial Meeting in Seattle to agree on an agenda for a new trade round would lead to a resurgence of protectionism have not, by and large, materialized. This is a tribute to the good sense of governments in conducting their trade policies. But credit also goes to the strength of the multilateral rules under the WTO, as well as commitments made under regional trade arrangements, which have made it more difficult to take protectionist measures. Members also agreed at their Ministerial Meeting in Doha, in November 2001, to build on these achievements and to put in place a comprehensive work programme to strengthen further the multilateral trading system. The recent accessions of the People’s Republic of China and Chinese Taipei as the 143rd and 144th Members, respectively, of the WTO, will further strengthen the role of the multilateral trading system and the import of the upcoming negotiations.
Relations with non-governmental organizations
In 2015, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had many opportunities to voice their views on trade issues and received regular updates on WTO activities. NGOs participated in a number of WTO events, such as the Public Forum, the Fifth Global Review of Aid for Trade and WTO 20th anniversary activities, as well as at the Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi. The WTO organized regional workshops for NGOs and provided regular briefings on trade negotiations and other issues.