Trade monitoring

The Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) was first established on a trial basis by the GATT contracting parties in April 1989. The Mechanism became a permanent feature of the World Trade Organization under the Marrakesh Agreement which established the WTO in January 1995.

WTO members are frequently referred to as “countries”, although some members are not countries in the usual sense of the word but are officially “customs territories”. The definition of geographical and other groupings in this report does not imply an expression of opinion by the Secretariat concerning the status of any country or territory, the delimitation of its frontiers, nor the rights and obligations of any WTO member in respect of WTO agreements. The colours, boundaries, denominations, and classifications in the maps of this publication do not imply, on the part of the WTO, any judgement on the legal or other status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of any boundary.

El PIB mundial a tipos de cambio de mercado aumentó un 3,6 por ciento en 2010, un año después de una contracción sin precedentes del 2,4 por ciento que acompañó la crisis financiera en 2009. La producción de las economías desarrolladas aumentó un 2,6 por ciento en 2010, tras caer un 3,7 por ciento en 2009, mientras que en el resto del mundo (incluidas las economías en desarrollo y la CEI) aumentó un 7,0 por ciento, en comparación con el 2,1 por ciento en 2009 (véase el cuadro 1).

L’Aide pour le commerce continue à mobiliser des ressources internationales. D’après les données les plus récentes dont on dispose, les engagements ont baissé de 14 % en 2011, à 41,5 milliards de dollars EU, mais ils se situent encore 57 % au-dessus de la période de référence 2002-2005. Il s’agit toujours d’engagements « additionnels », c’est-à-dire d’un nouveau financement et pas de fonds transférés d’autres programmes d’aide. Le thème du quatrième Examen global de l’Aide pour le commerce, qui s’est tenu en juillet, était « Se connecter aux chaînes de valeur ». En décembre, la Conférence ministérielle de l’OMC a renouvelé le mandat donné au Directeur général de mener des actions de soutien à l’Aide pour le commerce.

This first Trade Policy Review of the State of Kuwait has given us a much better understanding of recent developments in its trade and trade-related policies and practices together with the challenges it faces. We are grateful for the active participation of the Kuwaiti delegation headed by H.E. Ambassador Dharar Razzooqi, Permanent Representative in Geneva. I would also like to thank the discussant, Ambassador Shahid Bashir of Pakistan, and Members of the TPRB for contributing to our fruitful exchange of views.

There are a number of ways of looking at the World Trade Organization. It is an organization for trade opening. It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other.

This report, together with that of Liechtenstein and the Secretariat report on the two countries, establishes the basis for the review of their trade policy by WTO Members on 15 and 17 December 2008, given the fact that they form an economic and monetary union and Liechtenstein is an integral part of Swiss customs territory.

Charles Dickens’ phrase “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times” is for many Indonesian workers an apt summary of their experience during the early 2000s. While the national economy and especially its resource-exporting sectors enjoyed trade-driven growth of unprecedented magnitude and duration, millions of blue-collar workers and labor market entrants found themselves paradoxically sidelined from well-paid jobs in manufacturing, and instead forced to seek livelihoods in low-paid, low-skill service sector jobs. This happened at a time when many Asian countries, led by the People’s Republic of China, were enjoying (continued) expansion of manufacturing trade by participating in global production networks, which in turn created better employment opportunities for their less-skilled agricultural workforces. For many Indonesians, on the other hand, the boom was a period of stagnating real wages and diminished earnings prospects, even as national income and spending surged ahead and overall expectations for the future became increasingly bright. For workers, the consequence of job displacement due to structural change would have been particularly severe during this time.