Trade monitoring
Definitions and methods
Two systems of recording merchandise exports and imports are in common use. They are referred to as general trade and special trade and differ mainly in the way warehoused and re-exported goods are treated. General trade figures are larger than the corresponding special trade figures because the latter exclude certain trade flows such as goods shipped through bonded warehouses.
International Trade Statistics 2007
The new ITS will include more detailed information on trade in services statistics. In addition to the three categories published so far (transportation travel other commercial services) the report will also present statistics on individual components such as communication insurance and financial services for world trade as well as bilateral trade. Selected leading traders of each component will be shown. The report will also include statistics on foreign affiliate trade in services statistics (FATS) a new domain that has been gaining increasing relevance with the accumulated flow of foreign direct investment.
Specific notes for selected economies
Beginning with the 2002 report EU data compiled according to national statistical practices have been replaced starting 1993 with data compiled by Eurostat in accordance with EU legislation. The concepts and definitions adopted by the EU are in line with the United Nations’ International Trade Statistics Concepts and Definitions Series M N° 52 Revision 2. As a result the conceptual differences between EU member states’ data have been substantially reduced. Moreover for the EU as a whole Eurostat data are more timely than the previous source thus reducing substantially the amount of estimation included in the EU aggregate.
Composition of geographical and economic groupings
WTO members are frequently referred to as “country” 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 on 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.
Conclusion: present and future challenges
The World Trade Report 2007 has traced sixty years of multilateral trade co-operation starting with the birth of the GATT on 1 January 1948. The world has changed a good deal over those six decades and so too has the multilateral trading system. Globalization has brought economic interaction among nations closer than ever before thanks in no small part to revolutions in information and transport technology and growing openness in government policy. The trend towards increased inter-dependency has rendered international economic co-operation more complex and multi-faceted. Co-operation among nations has become harder to manage and more influential in shaping the circumstances in which people live. The subject matter covered by the system has expanded significantly and many more players are involved in shaping the system. The 23 original signatories of the GATT have now become the 151 Members of the WTO.
Sixty years of the multilateral trading system: achievements and challenges
Earlier Sections in this Report have sought to understand why international cooperation in trade matters seems to make sense to governments and how such cooperation translates into institutions and rules. We will now focus on the main achievements of multilateral trade cooperation over the last six decades and explore some of the core challenges and issues that the system faces today. The Section begins with a brief historical journey from the birth of the GATT to the establishment of the WTO. Subsection 2 records the efforts of governments over the years to reduce tariffs and address non-tariff measures. It also discusses briefly what can be said about the relationship between the GATT/WTO’s role in reducing and consolidating tariffs and the growth of trade. Subsection 3 analyses the evolution of dispute settlement in the GATT/ WTO focusing on how the system has developed and performed during the last six decades. The theme of subsection 4 is developing country participation in the multilateral trading system. The subsection focuses on how developing country issues have increasingly found their way onto the multilateral agenda and the systemic challenges posed by a heterogeneous membership with divergent needs interests and priorities. Subsection 5 addresses the phenomenon of regionalism and how the multilateral trading system has attempted to address burgeoning regional and bilateral trade policy tendencies. Subsection 6 deals with two procedural issues that have far-reaching systemic implications and go to the heart of legitimacy questions confronting the WTO. The subjects at hand are decision-making processes in the WTO and the relationship between the WTO and the outside world – specifically non-state actors. Finally subsection 7 explores the complex question of what can be said about how the WTO agenda is shaped and whether there exists a meaningful sense in which limits may be set to subject areas for cooperation under the WTO.
The economics and political economy of international trade cooperation
The rise and decline of free trade in the 19th century and the attendant economic and political consequences of these trends have always intrigued historians and economists. In the difficult times following World War I when international trade relations had to be rebuilt the free trade episode among European countries in the second half of the 19th century was perceived as a golden age. During that latter period widespread economic development driven by industrialization and technological change went together with trade expansion supported by a network of bilateral trade treaties. This network started with the Anglo-French (Cobden-Chevalier) treaty of 1860 and triggered a series of other treaties among European countries. Bilaterally agreed reciprocal tariff reductions together with the application of the unconditional mostfavoured-nation (MFN) clause contained in the treaties led to historically low tariff levels in particular for agricultural products. This period of largely unfettered trade across Europe lasted for nearly two decades up to 1879 faltering gradually thereafter and collapsing with World War I.