WTO accessions
China - Tariff Rate Quotas for Certain Agricultural Products
On 18 April 2019 the WTO circulated the panel report in the case brought by the United States in “China - Tariff Rate Quotas for Certain Agricultural Products” (DS517).
Russia - Measures Concerning Traffic in Transit
On 5 April 2019 the WTO circulated the panel report in the case brought by Ukraine in “Russia - Measures Concerning Traffic in Transit” (DS512).
Tariff Negotiations and Renegotiations under the GATT and the WTO
Procedures and Practices, 2nd Edition
Over the past seven decades, since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established in 1947, there has been a phenomenal increase in international trade in goods, largely due to sustained efforts by the world’s main trading nations to reduce and eliminate tariff barriers in a multilaterally orchestrated manner. This publication reviews how the procedures and practices relating to tariff negotiations and renegotiations have evolved over this time. In particular, this new edition recounts how negotiations to expand the duty-free coverage of the Information Technology Agreement were concluded and provides an account of tariff renegotiations regarding successive enlargements of the European Union. It also covers tariff negotiations for the accession of a number of new members to the WTO, such as China and Russia. This book will be of particular interest to negotiators, members of government, trade ministries, economists and academics specialized in trade policy.
Georgia's Post-Accession Structural Reform Challenges
The process leading to WTO accession is complex, requires solid domestic coordination mechanisms in the acceding country, a rethinking of its economic and trade policies and significant domestic structural reforms. It often implies the creation of new institutions designed to coordinate and implement the policies at the national level, as was the case in Georgia.
An Empirical Assessment of the Economic Effects of WTO Accession and its Commitments
Besides facilitating access to the world market, WTO accession negotiations entail a process of domestic reforms that are expected to improve the supply side of acceding economies. However, measuring the actual impact of accession remains an empirical debate.
The WTO- Plus Obligations: Dual Class or a Strengthened System?
Obligations in accession protocols that go beyond the multilateral trade agreements are commonly referred to as ‘WTO-plus’ obligations. This chapter reviews the so-called WTO-plus obligations and argues that even though they are perceived to expand the existing obligations under multilateral trade agreements, they in fact do not create two classes of membership within the World Trade Organization (WTO). First, all accession processes are conducted on a case-by-case basis, and thus result in different obligations for each acceding government. Second, the WTO legal system is evolving continuously; therefore, to adopt new rules and advance the legal system, obligations cannot remain the same as in previous accessions. Third, non-discrimination remains one of the fundamental principles of the multilateral trading system. Accessions to WTO follow this principle and hence WTO-plus obligations have been and will continue to be set on a non-discriminatory basis. At the same time, WTO-plus obligations help upgrade the rules-based multilateral trading system. They fill gaps in the WTO rules on anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard regimes, and they advance WTO rules by promoting plurilateral agreements.
How Post- TRIPS Negotiations Reframe the ‘Trade- Related Aspects’ of Intellectual Property after TRIPS: The Lessons of WTO Accessions
The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) established the first multilateral understanding of what constitutes a standard for ‘adequate’ and ‘effective’ protection of intellectual property rights, and established a new mechanism for monitoring and reviewing how these standards are met. The policy and legal framework defined by the TRIPS Agreement has, in the two decades since it entered into force, progressively gained acceptance as a legitimate, balanced and transparent set of standards. Since then, however, two parallel sets of negotiations have revisited the standards defined by TRIPS: the multilateral WTO accession negotiations, and bilateral and regional trade negotiations outside the WTO. In each case, TRIPS standards have been further elaborated, and timelines for their implementation altered, in a manner that produces a layering of rules upon the foundation of TRIPS. However, the institutional, legal and policy implications of these two lines of development contrast sharply. This chapter reviews the main lines of development of rules relating to intellectual property in the accession processes, and contrasts these with the parallel developments outside the WTO. It concludes with an analysis of the policy and practical lessons that can be derived from contrasting these two processes.
Trade Multilateralism – Enhancing Flexibility, Preserving the Momentum
The book you are about to close picked up on the evolving discussion on accessions and trade multilateralism. The first book on the subject, WTO Accessions and Trade Multilateralism: Case Studies and Lessons from the WTO at Twenty, looked back. It took stock of two decades of accessions to the WTO, their welfare and development outcomes, the resulting improvements to market access, and their contribution to domestic reforms and to the rules-based multilateral trading system. It shone a powerful light on the GATT/WTO accession procedure – a process hitherto viewed as lacking transparency and complicated by its esoteric vocabulary and apparent detachment from the day-to-day conduct of trade.
WTO Rules, Accession Protocols and Mega-Regionals: Complementarity and Governance in the Rules-Based Global Economy
Over the past twenty years, the rules-based global economy has been subject to a dynamic process of transformation. The trading environment has been characterized by shifts in the balance of economic power, emerging structures and rapid changes in global and regional alliances. Since its establishment in 1995, the WTO has sought to adapt to these global trends. The 2017 Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the 2015 Nairobi Decisions on Agriculture, the 2015 expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and twenty years of cumulative WTO accessions acquis are all part of this process of constant adaptation by the WTO to a rapidly changing environment. However, after the Seattle Ministerial meeting in 1999, free trade agreements (FTAs) and regional trade agreements (RTAs) mushroomed. The 'spaghetti-bowl’ consequences and the continuing proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and counter-PTAs have created challenges and opportunities for the rules-based multilateral trading system. Several questions have been raised, revolving around the compatibility and the discriminatory and trade diversion effects of such agreements. Are these agreements building blocks or stumbling blocks for the multilateral trading system? Moreover, the emergence of mega-regional RTAs (MRTAs), in particular the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), have called into question, in some quarters, the power and relevance of the WTO at large. This chapter examines the core question of whether mega-regionalism (and FTAs by implication) poses an existential risk to the multilateral trading system and argues that the answer is ‘no’. The negotiating results from FTAs, including in their mega-regional forms, and trade multilateralism can coexist in a constructive, healthy and competitive relationship and both are essential for the governance of the multipolar twenty-first-century global economy. To substantiate this conclusion, the chapter reviews the WTO accessions acquis and compares it to the provisions of the TPP, without pre-judging its future. The comparative analysis is conducted across several areas: market access; trade rules (bilateral/plurilateral/multilateral); trade negotiations as an instrument for domestic reforms; and discriminatory effects. The results of the analysis point to areas of significant complementarity and mutual supportiveness between WTO accession acquis and the TPP, and different degrees of trade liberalization in certain sectors. The accessions acquis demonstrates a process of mutually supportive coexistence between bilateral and plurilateral negotiations and the multilateral legal and policy framework of the WTO. The scope and quality of accession negotiations results are comparable to results from PTAs, including MRTAs, and go further to show greater robustness and durability.
Post-Accession Support Platform
WTO obligations, including notification requirements, and specific accession commitments are complex. Most of them become effective from the date of WTO membership. From a centralized accession process, new members now suddenly have to adapt to a decentralized WTO procedures and participate in parallel in its multiple bodies. The twenty years of post-accession experience of Article XII members suggests that many, especially least-developed countries (LDCs), have faced major implementation challenges until a system of post-accession support was introduced recently. This chapter reviews the Post-Accession Support Platform (PASP), a framework developed by the WTO Secretariat to facilitate the transition from acceding economy to full-fledged WTO member. The PASP offers individual post-accession implementation strategies, technical assistance and capacity-building, best international practices, a dedicated website and internal Secretariat procedures that can be used to support new WTO members. The chapter reviews the use of the PASP by two recently acceded LDCs – Afghanistan and Liberia – and finds early signs of improved effectiveness in the WTO post-accession transition process.
Trade Multilateralism in the Twenty-First Century
Trade multilateralism in the twenty-first century faces a serious test as weakness in the global economy and fast-paced technological changes create a challenging environment for world trade. This book examines how an updated and robust rules-based multilateral framework, anchored in the WTO, remains indispensable to maximizing the benefits of global economic integration and to reviving world trade. By examining recent accessions to the WTO, it reveals how the growing membership of the WTO has helped to support domestic reforms and to strengthen the rules-based framework of the WTO. It argues that the new realities of the twenty-first century require an upgrade to the architecture of the multilateral trading system. By erecting its ‘upper floors’ on the foundation of existing trade rules, the WTO can continue to adapt to a fast-changing environment and to maximize the benefits brought about by its ever-expanding membership.
The WTO and the Changing State of the Global Economy
The world economy is showing signs of recovery after several years of lacklustre performance, although major policy uncertainties may easily upset this fragile trend. To jumpstart economies and trade after the financial crisis of 2008–9, governments across the world employed a traditional mix of fiscal, monetary and structural policies. These efforts helped to prevent a deeper crisis but fell short of pulling the world out of a period of stagnation in 2012–16. Trade, in particular, slowed relative to its historical performance and to overall economic growth. Meanwhile, political and social pressures have led to inward-looking policies in large countries. Other challenges – from civil and military conflicts to scattered terrorism – have also contributed to this inward turn. Against this background, this chapter discusses the need for a new and more flexible global economic architecture. It would require reforms at all levels, starting with revamping the structural foundations for growth and trade, applying solid, ground-level macroeconomic policies in individual countries, and rebuilding the upper floors of multilateral cooperation, i.e. upgrading it and making it more adaptable and responsive to the requirements of the twenty-first century. In the trade area, key pillars to support this structure include innovative mechanisms of trade liberalization in both new and traditional areas, increased inclusiveness of trade, recognition and financing of adjustment costs, effective communication on trade, a redefined role and functions for the WTO, upgraded multilateral rules and strong leadership. With radical changes needed, WTO accessions have already contributed, and could contribute even more, to each of these pillars.
Transforming Accessions Data into Knowledge
Accessions to the World Trade Organization (WTO) generate large amounts of data accumulated during accession negotiations and subsequent domestic reforms. Owing to differences in the structure of acceding economies, accession commitments vary across recently acceded, or Article XII, members, in the number of tariff lines bound, the level of bindings and the various accession-specific commitments and obligations. The depth of commitments and extent of post-accession implementation influence the effectiveness of benefits derived by new members from WTO accession. In spite of the generally positive economic performance exhibited by all Article XII members, disparities exist in their country-specific economic performance in terms of trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and gross domestic product (GDP) growth. This chapter analyses the impact and depth of accession commitments to assess the economic effects of WTO accession. It explores how the data from accessions acquis can assist policy-makers in implementing structural reforms and integrating their countries into regional and global value chains. An Accession Commitment Index is proposed as a basis for a statistical exploration of the impact of WTO accession on a series of variables related to economic growth. Using an extension of the difference-in-difference methodological approach, the chapter finds that WTO accession generally has a positive and significant impact on the acceding economy’s trade and economic performance. The results also show that the impact of WTO membership on the trade/GDP ratio in developing countries is significantly higher than in previous studies.
WTO Accession Negotiations from a Negotiator’s Perspective
This chapter considers political, commercial and legal aspects of accession negotiations and the compromises by all parties involved to make accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) a reality. Using the negotiations on the accessions of the Russian Federation and Samoa as case studies, this chapter analyses how political constraints, economic interests and legal commitments affected the course of the negotiations. In the case of the Russian Federation, the focus was on certain investment programmes in the automotive industry that were deemed inconsistent with the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs). Agreement on these measures required prolonged negotiations, including at ministerial levels, to find a satisfactory solution for all parties involved. In the case of Samoa, attention was focused on the appropriate level of flexibility to be granted to a least-developed country (LDC), as the expansion of LDC membership is a priority for the Organization, in accordance with the Guidelines on LDCs’ accessions. The chapter concludes that the experience of accession negotiations has helped to define domestic reform in acceding members, clarify the application of WTO provisions in practice, upgrade regional integration frameworks and counter negative political pressures. These lessons can be used in negotiations by other acceding economies and constitute important building blocks of the upper floors of the international trading system.
Afghanistan’s Accession: Challenged by Conflict
WTO membership has long been an integral part of the overall strategic objectives of Afghanistan. For a post-conflict, landlocked and least-developed economy, joining the WTO was perceived as an opportunity to achieve economic stability, improve regional security and cooperation, alleviate poverty and achieve peace. Afghanistan has been on an eleven-year journey to integrate into the multilateral trading system. Its WTO accession process, described in this chapter, was a learning experience in which Afghanistan’s governmental and academic institutions, private sector and civil society all upgraded their capacity, using this accession as a catalyst to accelerate structural reforms and strengthen market instruments. The enormous reforms accomplished in this process have allowed Afghanistan to build a more favourable trade and investment regime, with effective laws and trade policies based on the WTO agreements. This chapter sheds light on the accession process and the accomplished domestic transformation and identifies ways forward to maximize the benefits of Afghanistan’s WTO membership as a tool for cementing its long-standing commitment to an open economy, rule of law, good governance and international cooperation.
Accession Protocols and the Private Sector
Although the private sector is not, in most cases, directly involved in negotiations for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), its needs and positions are addressed through consultative mechanisms organized at the national level by WTO members. These mechanisms represent a two-way information channel: the relevant authorities can obtain the foundations to formulate and defend national negotiating positions, while the private sector has an avenue to present sectoral interests as well as any relevant trade concerns. In acknowledging the influence of the private sector, the objective of this chapter is to examine the existing public-private consultation mechanisms in selected WTO members, as well as the evidence of private sector interests in recent reports of accession working parties. The analysis suggests that the influence of the business sector is embedded in accession protocols. Accession agreements include results obtained through trade policy consultation mechanisms, which vary in the degree of formality and sophistication. Ideally, the consultation and outreach mechanisms established by acceding governments to promote support for WTO accession should be strengthened throughout the WTO membership. Such mechanisms should continue to function once accessions have been completed to support the implementation of commitments, set further negotiating priorities and participate in trade policy reviews and dispute settlement. The support and contributions of the private sector were instrumental to successfully achieve recent multilateral results, notably the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement.
WTO Accession Commitments on Agriculture: Lessons for WTO Rule-Making
This chapter explains how accession negotiations have helped to further the agricultural reform process by upgrading and deepening the existing multilateral rules on trade in agriculture. It provides a broad overview of the existing multilateral disciplines in the area of agriculture, as contained in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). Using the experience of the thirty-six concluded accessions, the chapter suggests that a number of commitments, such as extensive market access commitments, ambitious domestic support commitments and comprehensive bindings with regard to export duties, helped establish high benchmarks vis-à-vis the undertakings of the original members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In market access, the commitments of acceded members are primarily in the form of reductions in tariff bindings, with a very limited use of tariff rate quotas. In domestic support, the commitments of the acceded members have been negotiated based on the respective recourse to such support during a recent three-year period, dependent on the timing of the individual accessions. These commitments are generally more ambitious than the corresponding commitments of the original members under the AoA, which were derived based on the domestic support policy framework existing in 1986–8. Similarly, in the field of export subsidies, the acceded governments’ ambitious efforts to eliminate these highly distorting subsidies helped to create a strong momentum in the broader agriculture negotiations, leading to the eventual agreement on the global elimination of agricultural export subsidies at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference in 2015.