Trade monitoring

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) figured prominently on the agenda of the Council for Trade in Services in 2011. Discussions focused on e-commerce and international mobile roaming. The council concluded the third review of most-favourednation (MFN) exemptions and continued its discussions of specific services sectors and modes of supply, on the basis of background notes produced by the WTO Secretariat.

En la Cuarta Conferencia Ministerial, celebrada en Doha (Qatar) en noviembre de 2001, los gobiernos de los países Miembros de la OMC acordaron iniciar nuevas negociaciones comerciales. Convinieron asimismo en ocuparse de otras cuestiones, en particular la aplicación de los Acuerdos de la OMC existentes. El conjunto se denomina Programa de Doha para el Desarrollo (PDD). Las negociaciones tienen lugar en el Comité de Negociaciones Comerciales (CNC) y sus órganos subsidiarios, que suelen ser consejos y comités ordinarios que se reúnen en “sesión extraordinaria” o grupos de negociación especialmente creados al efecto. Los Presidentes de los nueve órganos de negociación rinden informe al CNC, presidido por el Director General de la OMC, que coordina sus trabajos.

En 2012, los negociadores siguieron tratando de desbloquear el Programa de Doha para el Desarrollo y realizaron ciertos progresos en varios ámbitos, en particular en la facilitación del comercio, la agricultura y la solución de diferencias.

This year’s International Trade Statistics will be the last in its current format. For almost 20 years, the publication has aimed to act as a statistical compendium of merchandise trade, trade in commercial services, and more recently, trade in terms of value added to global value chains. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the WTO, this edition looks back at how trade has changed over the past 20 years.

International trade economists have long been interested in understanding the distributional implications of globalization or trade liberalization or product market competition. One of the crucial aspects of such distributional effects, which have received a lot of attention, especially from the 1990s onward, is how such forces divide the labor pie into skilled (or nonproduction) and unskilled (or production) workers. In other words, does an increase in trade participation or exposure to international markets result in an increase in returns for skilled or less skilled workers?

During 2009 the Office of Internal Audit (OIA) issued a report on the WTO’s travel policies, conducted two follow-up audits on procurement, reviewed current practices on delegating authority, and drafted an internal audit policy and procedure manual for staff.

Desde sus comienzos, el sistema internacional de comercio ha estado configurado por una mezcla de principios y pragmatismo. Las relaciones comerciales no pueden determinarse exclusivamente sobre la base de simples principios puros definidos y acordados en los comienzos. En la determinación de las posiciones adoptadas por los gobiernos intervienen inevitablemente consideraciones prácticas y políticas y expresiones particulares del interés nacional. Algunos comentaristas reflejan esa realidad cuando se refieren a una medida o un enfoque de política del gobierno como “mala economía pero buena política”. Sin embargo, gran parte de la fuerza y del éxito histórico del sistema multilateral de comercio ha residido en la disposición de los gobiernos a comprometerse previamente a observar una serie de principios y normas, sostenidos por disposiciones vinculantes para la solución de las diferencias comerciales.

Trade agreements define rules for the conduct of trade policy. These rules must strike a balance between commitments and flexibility. Too much flexibility may undermine the value of commitments, but too little f lexibility may render the rules politically unsustainable. This tension between credible commitments and flexibility is often close to the surface during trade negotiations. For example, the question of a “special safeguard mechanism” (the extent to which developing countries would be allowed to protect farmers from import surges) was crucial in the discussion of the July 2008 mini-ministerial meeting, which sought to agree negotiating modalities – or a final blueprint – for agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA).

During 2010 the Trade Policy Review Body (TPR B) reviewed 19 WTO members: Malaysia, El Salvador, Croatia, Armenia, Albania, the People’s Republic of China, Malawi, the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei), The Gambia, Honduras, the United States, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sri Lanka, Belize, Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Hong Kong, China. The Chair’s concluding remarks for these reviews are reproduced below.

Growth in the volume of world merchandise trade slowed to 1.3 per cent in 2016, down from 2.6 per cent in 2015, as continuing weakness in the global economy and low commodity prices had a negative impact on global import demand.

En 2010, le Conseil du commerce des services a poursuivi ses discussions sur certains secteurs de services et modes de fourniture, sur la base de notes d'information établies par le Secrétariat de l'OMC. Treize de ces notes ont été examinées en 2010 et deux autres le seront en 2011. Le Conseil a aussi entrepris le troisième examen des exemptions du principe de la nation la plus favorisée (NPF). Ces exemptions du principe fondamental de l'OMC de non-discrimination entre partenaires commerciaux sont autorisées au titre de l'AGC S, à certaines conditions, mais elles sont censées être éliminées progressivement.