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International Trade Statistics 2005
Compiled and analyzed by the WTO’s economists and statisticians the figures provide comprehensive comparable and up-to-date statistics on trade in merchandise and commercial services for an assessment of world trade flows by country region and main product group or service category. Some 240 tables and charts depict trade developments from various perspectives and provide a number of long-term time series as additional information.
Annual Report 2005
The Annual report of the WTO focuses on the regular activities of the organization the details of its current structure staff and budget. The Annual report is published in the first half of each year.
International trade in air transport: Recent developments and policy issues
Air transport like other transport services is associated with international trade in two distinct ways. First air transport is traded as a service in its own right. Second it is a key intermediate service for many other kinds of trade in the domain of both goods and services (such as tourism). Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of an efficient effective and reliable air transport infrastructure especially in developing countries to ensure the materialization of the gains from trade (WTO 2004). These studies also highlight the important role of international civil aviation in contributing to the development process and its role in the leisure and commercial decisions of many people. This importance is expected to increase as a result of technological innovation deregulation and enhanced market access for foreign companies which are all making air transport more accessible to a wider set of customers in a broader range of countries.
Standards in the multilateral trading system
This Section focuses on standards-related WTO legal texts and relevant jurisprudence. The Section begins with a discussion of the texts themselves. This is followed by a detailed discussion of some of the key concepts relevant to standards in the TBT and the SPS Agreements as well as GATT 1994. The Agreements are then placed in the context of the economic discussion presented in the previous Sections and reference is also made to accumulated standards-related jurisprudence. Since the focus of the Report is on product standards only WTO legal texts and jurisprudence bearing on “goods” will be discussed. It is important to note though that the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) also contains standards-related provisions on services specifically in Article VI paras. 4 and 5.
Selected medium-term developments
International trade in fuels and pharmaceuticals has expanded at above-average rates in recent years affecting the structure of global merchandise trade flows. These developments are examined here.
Introduction
Product standards specify or pin down the characteristics of a product. These characteristics can include design size weight safety energy and environmental performance interoperability material and even the process of production. Examples of standards include the dimensions of freight containers and of screw threads; safety performance of seat belts air bags and medical devices; pasteurization of milk; and protocols that allow computers from different vendors to communicate with one another.
Executive summary
The World Trade Report 2005 begins with a brief review of salient trends in international trade focusing firstly on recent developments and then examining medium-term developments in the oil sector and the pharmaceutical sector. Section II of WTR 2005 contains the core topic of this year’s Report which is standards and trade in the context of the WTO. The Section looks first at the economics of standards and trade and then at a range of institutional and policy issues. This is followed by a discussion of standards in the multilateral trading system. Section III of the Report takes up three discrete and topical issues of relevance to international trade. The three thematic essays in this Section are on the use of quantitative economics in WTO dispute settlement trade in air transport services and offshoring services. The essay on the use of quantitative economic analysis in WTO dispute settlement procedures explains the kinds of quantitative techniques and econometric models that have been applied in various WTO legal disputes and discusses the use that was made of such analysis in a selected range of cases. The essay on trade in air transport services takes a close look at key characteristics of the industry and examines how it has evolved over time. The analysis also considers the economics of this sector and a number of issues relating to competition regulation governance and trade in air transport services. Finally the essay on offshoring services considers the economic characteristics of the activity its scope and implications and how it is relevant to the General Agreement on Trade in Services.
Institutions and policy issues
This Section explains how standardization and conformity assessment work in practice and describes the relevant characteristics of standardization and conformity assessment infrastructures in various regions of the world. It starts with a discussion of the standardization process and considers where standardization takes place how it is organized and who participates in the process. Subsection 2 discusses the organization of conformity assessment at the international regional and national levels and describes the ways in which conformity assessment requirements may impact on trade.
Conclusion
This Report has shown that it is important to distinguish standards according to their function. The conceptual framework adopted in the Report distinguished standards related to network externalities imperfect information and negative production or consumption externalities.