Trade monitoring
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Introduction
Globalization is transforming development. This section examines how, in its scope and speed, the recent rise of the developing world is unprecedented – eclipsing the rise of the newly industrializing countries after the Second World War, and dwarfing the earlier rise of Europe and North America in the late 19th century. There are many reasons why the developing world has achieved economic lift-off. One of the most important is its integration into the world economy – and the new access to markets, technology and investment that has resulted. This rise of the developing world is one of four recent trends that holds new development opportunities while also bringing new challenges. The same is true for three other trends identified here: the spread of production chains, high commodity prices, and growing economic interdependence.
Trade negotiations in 2015
In 2015, the Trade Negotiations Committee and its subsidiary bodies focused on delivering meaningful outcomes for the Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in December. In the first half of the year, WTO members focused on preparing a post-Bali work programme. Although members ultimately failed to establish this programme, they redoubled efforts in the second half of the year to deliver substantive outcomes in Nairobi. Negotiations at the Ministerial Conference concluded with six ministerial decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to least developed countries, known collectively as the “Nairobi Package”. Ministers also issued a declaration on the future of the WTO and members’ divergent views on the Doha Round.
Executive summary
Unprecedented economic growth over the last quarter of a century has necessarily been accompanied by unprecedented economic change.
Executive summary
At the Fourth World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting held in Doha in November 2001, Ministers launched a comprehensive set of multilateral trade negotiations and a work programme. This mandate is sometimes referred to as the Doha Development Agenda, reflecting a shared desire to ensure that the trading system is relevant and responsive to the needs of developing countries. Among the areas covered by the negotiations or the work programme are market access in manufactures, agriculture and services, certain rules (including anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures, and regional arrangements), trade and environment, trade-related intellectual property rights, the relationship between trade and investment, the interaction between trade and competition policy, transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation, and dispute settlement. Developing countries were particularly instrumental in putting certain issues on the agenda, including trade and technology transfer, trade, debt and finance, small economies, implementation issues (mostly pending from the Uruguay Round) and special and differential treatment. Views continue to differ on how and in some cases whether to include all the issues mentioned above in the negotiations, which are due for completion at the end of 2004.
Trade in goods
During its four formal sessions in 2010, the Council for Trade in Goods considered various waiver requests from WTO members and trade concerns raised by members on measures implemented by other WTO members, and dealt with other routine tasks.