Trade monitoring

At the meetings of the Council for Trade in Goods, WTO members addressed a large number of trade concerns, including measures, policies and practices considered potentially discriminatory or trade restricting. Some of these concerns had already been raised in the past. The Council also considered a number of waiver requests and took note of an updated and comprehensive list of notifications submitted by members under Annex 1A of the WTO Agreement. Gabon announced the conclusion of renegotiations of its tariff commitments.

At the 4th 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) or the Doha Round. 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.

International trade is integral to the process of globalization. Over many years, governments in most countries have increasingly opened their economies to international trade, whether through the multilateral trading system, increased regional cooperation or as part of domestic reform programmes. Trade and globalization more generally have brought enormous benefits to many countries and citizens. Trade has allowed nations to benefit from specialization and economies to produce at a more efficient scale. It has raised productivity, supported the spread of knowledge and new technologies, and enriched the range of choices available to consumers. But deeper integration into the world economy has not always proved popular, nor have the benefits of trade and globalization necessarily reached all sections of society. Trade scepticism is on the rise in certain quarters, and the purpose of this year’s core topic of the World Trade Report, entitled “Trade in a Globalizing World”, is to remind ourselves of what we know about the gains from international trade and the challenges arising from higher levels of integration.

Le Yémen, pays moins avancé (PMA), a accédé à l’OMC en juin 2014, devenant ainsi le 160e Membre de l’Organisation. L’ensemble des textes relatifs à l’accession des Seychelles a été approuvé en décembre, permettant ainsi aux Seychelles de devenir le Membre le plus récent de l’OMC en avril 2015 (voir les pages 24-25). Les Membres de l’OMC représentent maintenant 98 % du commerce mondial, contre 91 % en 1995 lorsque l’OMC a été créée.

The thirteenth Trade Policy Review of Japan has been a good opportunity for Members to discuss recent developments in the country’s economic, trade and investment policies and their implications for international trade. Such a fruitful dialogue would not have been possible without the constructive engagement of the Japanese delegation led by Mr. Tomochika Uyama; their team in Geneva headed by Ambassador Junichi Ihara; our discussant, H.E. Ambassador Julian Braithwaite from the United Kingdom; and all those Members who had participated in this exercise.