Transcript Overview of Emerging issues for the multilateral trading system acp

EMERGING ISSUES AND THE MULTILATERAL
TRADING SYSTEM
SOME ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
WTO GENEVA WEEK
CUTS INTERNATIONAL, GENEVA SESSION
GENEVA, 12 DECEMBER 2012
RASHID S. KAUKAB
OUTLINE
• Some emerging issues: brief implications for developing
countries
• Emerging issues and the multilateral trading system: a
development perspective
• Way forward: some suggestions for developing countries
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I. SOME EMERGING ISSUES
• World is changing but that is nothing new: what is new is
the pace and complexity of changes
• Power balance and politics: emerging economies; RTAs
• Economics and finance: Euro debt crisis; exchange rates
• Resources gaps: food, water, and energy
• Interplay of issues: climate change
• Business and markets: global supply chains
• Driving force and opportunity: innovation and technology
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I. EMERGING ECONOMIES: SOME
IMPLICATIONS
• Alternative and growing markets for other developing countries
• Diversified power balance in the WTO
• Can they provide finance, technology, and markets for value-added
products?
• Can they bring more equal distribution of power in the WTO?
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I. RISE OF RTA: SOME IMPLICATIONS
Challenges:
• Rules on new issues and deeper disciplines on issues covered in the
WTO (WTO+) thus setting precedents e.g. on IPRs, investor-state dispute
settlement
• Diverting attention and resources from the MTS
• Creating web of overlapping and conflicting rules
• Marginalisation of smaller developing countries
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I. RISE OF RTA: SOME IMPLICATIONS
Opportunities:
• Larger economic spaces for smaller developing countries
• Testing new rules and new issues
• Building negotiating experience and skills
• Basis for alliances in the MTS
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I. ACCESS TO RESOURCES: SOME IMPLICATIONS
• Growing demand: global population growth; Chain and India factor; expanding
global middle class; inefficient use
• Growing demand for not only energy but for raw materials, water and land
• Impact on long term prices: increase and volatility
• Rise in disputes including at the WTO
• More export restrictions
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I. ACCESS TO RESOURCES: SOME IMPLICATIONS
Resource-rich countries
• Urgent need to use gains from commodity/resource price boom for
diversification and structural transformation of economies
• Sustainable management of natural resources
Resource-poor countries
• Stable access, e.g. to food and energy resources
• Development of appropriate MTS disciplines on export restrictions
General
• Investing in renewables
• Regional arrangements
• Negotiating better agreements
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I. CLIMATE CHANGE: SOME IMPLICATIONS
• Will induce changes in what is produced where and how, and what is
traded and how
• Will increase frequency of shocks to production, productivity, and hence
trade flows
• Some countries may be tempted to use trade policy measures to deal
with “carbon leakage”, e.g. through border tax adjustments
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I. CLIMATE CHANGE: SOME IMPLICATIONS
• Dealing with private standards: convergence or equivalence; need for
technical and financial resources
• Dealing with new “regulations”: negotiations, disputes, adoption
• WTO: using the existing agreements and provisions; negotiations on
environmental goods and services
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I. GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: SOME IMPLICATIONS
• Innovation/conception-production-marketing networks spread across
countries, firms, and goods and services
• Lengthening of supply chains with greater fragmentation of tasks:
growing trade in intermediate goods and services
• Inducing changes in the way trade flows are measured
• Participation in global value chains as an opportunity to trade out of
under-development and poverty
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I. GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: SOME IMPLICATIONS
Where in the Value Chain Matters
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I. GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: SOME IMPLICATIONS
• Impact on multilateral trade negotiations: “re-think” of trade flows and
their origins as trade in tasks with incremental values being added at
each stage, located in different countries
• Governance of private standards: e.g. for agro-industrial value chains
where compliance is costly and is a constraint for SMEs
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I. INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY: SOME IMPLICATIONS
• Current gap between developed and developing countries
• A key determinant of productivity enhancement
• Contribution to economic growth and development
• Importance of technology transfer
• In-built flexibility in the MTS to adapt to technological developments to
maximise their contribution to trade and development
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II. EMERGING ISSUES AND MULTILATERAL
TRADING SYSTEM: A DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE
Performance of the MTS: Current
• Regular functions: reasonable though limited developing country
participation
• Negotiations: Doha Round stalled but important developments must be
preserved
• Dispute settlement: reasonable though very limited developing country
participation
• Discussions: increasing but remain limited
• Development: gap between rhetoric and reality
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II. EMERGING ISSUES AND MULTILATERAL
TRADING SYSTEM: A DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE
Performance of the MTS: Emerging Issues
• Dealing with emerging issues: whether and how (mandate and manner)
• New negotiations: mandate needed which should be based on the core
competence of the WTO and the interests of all its Members
• Doha Round and regular WTO work: some issues can be addressed
• Dispute settlement: may become the default option
• Discussions: expect and prepare for more
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II. EMERGING ISSUES AND MULTILATERAL TRADING
SYSTEM: A DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE
International Trading System
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II. EMERGING ISSUES AND MULTILATERAL
TRADING SYSTEM: A DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE
• Strengthening vertical links: MTS should reflect grassroots' aspirations
and concerns, and aim for development outcomes
• Finding horizontal links: MTS is only a part of the system of global
economic governance and hence should let specialised institutions deal
with issues under their respective mandates/competences while
collaborating as appropriate
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III. WAY FORWARD: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Objectives
• An equitable and well functioning system of global economic
governance with a development-oriented MTS
• Strengthening vertical links and finding and implementing suitable
horizontal links
• Coordinated and strategic actions at the national, regional, ACP and
multilateral levels
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III. WAY FORWARD: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Actions at the National Level
• Technical, human and institutional capacity building
• Regular and systematic Inter-ministerial coordination and multi-stakeholder
consultations
• Investing in human resources development, renewables, and innovation
• Strategic relationships with regional partners, emerging economies, and
developed countries
• Sustainable management of natural resources, including through better
negotiations
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III. WAY FORWARD: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Actions at the Regional Level
• Enlarging regional economic spaces through own FRTAs
• Common strategies to deal with emerging issues
• Developing new and development-friendly rules to deal with emerging
issues
• Preparing for better participation in the MTS
• Careful and coordinated negotiation of RTAs with developed countries
and emerging economies
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III. WAY FORWARD: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Actions at the MTS
Preserving useful gains of Doha Round
• SP and SSM (food security)
• Hybrid approach to environmental goods and services (environment and
climate change)
• Commitments for technical and financial assistance
• Measures to deal with preference-erosion
• Situation-based approaches to commitments, e.g. paragraph 6 in
NAMA, differentiated commitments by SVEs, RACs, etc.
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III. WAY FORWARD: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Actions at the MTS
Improving participation in Regular Bodies
• Sectoral Councils and Committees (e.g. CTG, CTE, CTD, CTS, TRIPS):
brining up emerging issues of interest and safeguarding against entry of
emerging issues from the back door
• Technical Committees (e.g. SPS, TBT): raising and dealing with technical
issues related to emerging issues where needed
• TPRB: making strategic use of the opportunity
• All Bodies: monitoring for the implementation of the existing
commitments by trading partners
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III. WAY FORWARD: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Actions at the MTS
Safeguarding interests through DSU
• Monitoring developments: on-going consultations, cases, outcomes and
their implications
• Strategic participation: as third parties and as complainants
• Reform: participation in DSU review negotiations
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III. WAY FORWARD: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Actions at the MTS
Initiating and responding to discussions
• Making use of Regular Bodies
• Organisation of dedicated seminars and workshops on selected
emerging issues
• Joint events with other relevant international organisations
• Working with like-minded and development-friendly NGOs
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THANK YOU.
QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ARE WELCOME
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