Economic research and trade policy analysis
Foreword by the WTO Director-General
The 2010 World Trade Report examines trade in natural resources. This is a topic of growing importance in international trade relations. Natural resources are at the root of much economic activity they are a key component of many economies and their share in world trade is growing. A number of features exclusive to natural resources explain why they occupy a special place in economic political economy and policy analysis.
Policies to improve the supply chain: What needs to be done?
As the agenda of trade facilitation achieves more prominence on the international stage the prioritization of interventions takes on increasing importance. Discussions of trade facilitation often take in anything that might promote trade other than tariff reduction. In its broadest sense trade facilitation can include both eliminating nontariff measures (NTMs) often defined as policies other than tariffs that impede trade (compare UNCTAD 2010) reforms to customs and border measures improvements in transformation and communications infrastructure regulatory issues and broader improvements in transparency and accountability that could impact trade. From the business standpoint the classification of methods of trade facilitation is not as important as taking action that will in fact promote trade.
Introduction
Over the past decades trade flows have become increasingly global. Today South- South trade represents around one-half of global trade and the top ranks of major traders are not exclusively occupied by industrialized countries (OECD 2010). Trade now spans all major world regions and continues to grow within and across those regions. Trade also takes new forms as trade in goods is increasingly accompanied by trade in tasks. Capital flows more freely across regions and trade and capital flows together have contributed to an increased transfer of technological change across regions. There is a strong sense that companies and countries well integrated in these global networks are part of a virtuous circle involving technological progress and growth. Not being connected however can represent a very serious bottleneck for future growth and economic development.
Agradecimientos
El Informe sobre el Comercio Mundial ha sido redactado bajo la supervisión general de Patrick Low Director de la División de Estudios Económicos y Estadística. Los autores principales del Informe son Bijit Bora K. Michael Finger Marion Jansen Alexander Keck Patrick Low Hildegunn Nordas Roberta Piermartini y Robert Teh. Las estadísticas comerciales y la información arancelaria fueron facilitadas por el grupo de estadística de la División de Estudios Económicos y Estadística bajo la coordinación de Guy Karsenty Julia de Verteuil Andreas Maurer y Jürgen Richtering.
The evolution of the GATT/WTO Accession Protocol: Legal tightening and domestic ratification
Where are the legal roots of WTO Accession Protocols? How much was carried over from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade standard and practice? What customary practice governs the preparation and approval of accession decisions and protocols? What is the current substantive standard and basic architecture of Accession Protocols? Are there unique provisions in Accession Protocols that have emerged in twenty years of WTO accession history? To what extent do Accession Protocols come into play in the context of WTO dispute settlement? By comparing the empirical data contained in the WTO Accession Protocols with preceding GATT Accession Protocols this chapter offers waterfront coverage of WTO Accession Protocols from the GATT baseline. The chapter shows that although rooted in its GATT predecessor base and remarkably consistent over time some unique provisions have been incorporated into the architecture of the WTO Accession Protocols since 1995. Because Accession Protocols become integral parts of WTO Agreement after they come into force the chapter argues that the specific ‘terms and conditions of accession’ in WTO Accession Protocols have had a direct and salutary impact on the entirety of the WTO Agreement through its tightened safeguard and upgrade. The chapter concludes by arguing that the evidence suggests that the WTO Agreement has been expanded by the absorption of the Accession Protocols over the course of the last twenty years and that the effect on the WTO Agreement has been significant rather than marginal.
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.
Las subvenciones y la omc
En una parte anterior del Informe hemos examinado los argumentos económicos a favor y en contra de distintos tipos de subvenciones. El análisis económico nos indica que a veces las subvenciones permiten subsanar eficientemente diversos tipos de deficiencias del mercado. También nos indica que las subvenciones pueden distorsionar las corrientes comerciales si otorgan una ventaja competitiva artificial a los exportadores o a las ramas de producción que compiten con las importaciones. Que una subvención se considere como una intervención deseable para corregir una deficiencia del mercado o como una distorsión del comercio no deseable a veces depende de quién emite el juicio. Sin embargo el análisis económico debería poder ayudar a determinar la conveniencia de una intervención desde la perspectiva de bienestar social y a evaluar las ventajas de otras formas de intervención. No obstante los gobiernos pueden conceder ciertos tipos de subvenciones que guardan escasa relación con consideraciones de eficiencia y en esos casos el análisis económico basado en un simple análisis del bienestar social resulta de poca utilidad. Además en estos casos es probable que el análisis sea más útil para asegurar que quienes adoptan políticas conozcan los costos que conlleva perseguir determinados objetivos y los costos de otras formas menos costosas de alcanzarlos. También sabemos que las decisiones sobre lo que se va a subvencionar en qué cuantía y por cuánto tiempo entrañan complejos aspectos técnicos respecto de los cuales es frecuente que los gobiernos no tengan información suficiente.
El programa de doha para el desarrollo
Un objetivo fundamental de la OMC es promover el desarrollo económico mediante una participación efectiva en el comercio mundial. En lo que respecta a la cuestión de cómo pueden los países en desarrollo derivar mayores beneficios de su participación en el sistema de comercio tienen pertinencia tres aspectos de la estructura y las normas de la OMC. En primer lugar las normas propiamente dichas junto con las excepciones e interpretaciones permitidas constituyen los cimientos del sistema y desempeñan una función clave en la determinación de las condiciones y oportunidades de comercio. En segundo lugar se plantea la cuestión del alcance del sistema. No hay ningún tema que la OMC haya considerado y luego descartado de modo que esto se refiere a la inclusión de nuevos asuntos. En tercer lugar las medidas de protección aplicadas a las exportaciones de un país también contribuyen considerablemente a definir las condiciones y oportunidades de comercio. En síntesis la índole de las normas de la OMC el alcance de esas normas y las condiciones del acceso a los mercados son las tres cuestiones principales que determinan la calidad y utilidad de la OMC para sus Miembros. Por lo tanto no debe sorprender que cada uno de estos tres elementos figure de manera destacada en el Programa de Doha para el Desarrollo.
L’impact du commerce sur les femmes dans leurs différents rôles
Au cours des trois dernières décennies le monde a connu une intégration croissante. La part du commerce des marchandises dans le produit intérieur brut (PIB) est passée d’environ 43% en 1995 à près de 60% en 2017. Les droits de douane ont progressivement diminué à partir de l’établissement de l’Accord général sur les tarifs douaniers et le commerce (GATT) en 1948 puis des mesures de libéralisation unilatérale et huit cycles de négociations multilatérales ont fortement réduit les droits de douane appliqués par les Membres de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC). Les taux NPF (nation la plus favorisée) appliqués supérieurs à 10% en 1995 se situaient en 2017 juste au-dessus de 7% (graphique 1.1). D’une manière générale les pays qui sont ouverts au commerce international enregistrent une plus forte croissance innovent augmentent leur productivité et offrent à leur population des revenus plus élevés et des perspectives élargies.
German Employment Legislation and its Impact on the Trade and Labour Market Nexus
Motivated by Germany’s economic weakness and high labour market inflexibility The Economist (1999) once described the country as “the sick man of the euro”. The public debate surrounding this statement considered Germany as one of the major threats to the euro due to its persistently high rates of unemployment since the mid-1970s. The rather low levels of job creation were presumed to be caused by labour market institutions including restrictive employment protection a high level of union coverage and a generous welfare system. The German Government started to transform the labour market legislation at the beginning of the 21st century by giving particular enterprises more flexibility in hiring and firing their employees as part of an in-depth labour market reform programme. Other adjustments included lower unemployment benefits and various active labour market policies. Consequently unemployment rates in Germany were plummeting shortly after the enforcement of the reforms. Today Germany’s rate of unemployment is at a record low level of 3.4 per cent which is the second-lowest rate in the European Union (EU). To some extent this success is an achievement that can be attributed to the rigorous labour market reforms.
The 2014 WTO accession of Yemen: Accession negotiations as an instrument for domestic reform, national security and international cooperation
In 2011 a popular revolution occurred in Yemen leading to the formation of the government which brought the accession process to its conclusion in 2014 following years of long and complex negotiations. From the beginning Yemen’s accession process was envisaged not as an end in itself but as a means to achieve other more imperative objectives including poverty reduction decreasing levels of chronic unemployment and raising levels of sustained development to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population. This chapter gives an account of the accession process focusing on the positive effects of Yemen’s accession to the WTO both as a catalyst for long sought-after domestic reform and as a useful and convenient path to reach higher levels of reform for which the accession process acted as a spur. The aspiration was to create a competitive business environment that would lead to efficient resource allocation and ultimately boost output and productivity as well as increasing the well-being of the populace and reaping the benefits of WTO membership. Joining the WTO does not mark the end of the reform process. There is work post-accession to establish and strengthen different institutions to exercise the benefits of WTO membership for Yemen.
The future of multilateral investment rules in the WTO: Contributions from WTO accession outcomes
Foreign direct investment and trade are increasingly interlinked due to the deepening integration of trade and production networks. Today there is an ever-increasing percentage of imports in a country’s production. Responding to this increase some countries have sought to limit the percentage of imports in their production by requiring that foreign investors use locally produced inputs as an aspect of implementing priorities in development plans and/or strategic industrial policy. These policies and priorities have also been complicated and exacerbated by protectionism whereby countries discriminate blatantly in order to promote local industries with policies that grant more favours to local producers and/or products and materials. All these practices impact negatively on international trade by distorting the conditions for fair competition. Although different rules have been developed at an international level to streamline these practices currently there is no single comprehensive framework to govern them at the multilateral level. Despite this WTO members through accessions have negotiated with acceding governments to refine and improve extant investment-related rules in the WTO. This chapter argues that WTO-specific outcomes as in deposited Accession Protocols have contributed to improving significantly the predictability of the investment regulatory laws and policies of Article XII members reinforcing existing investment-related rules on trade in goods and services and enhancing the business-friendliness of WTO rules and the relationship with the private sector (including through expanded opportunities for investment) by binding for example their status quo policies and rules and accession-specific obligations codified in domestic law and regulation.
Foreword by the WTO Director-General
The COVID-19 pandemic has neatly illustrated the multi-faceted ways in which globalization touches our lives. The deep interconnections of travel trade and financial flows that characterize our era allowed the novel coronavirus and its associated economic shocks to spread around the world in a matter of weeks. Earlier pandemics took months even years to go global.
Prólogo del Director General de la OMC
El comercio y la tecnología están estrechamente relacionados. Desde la invención de la rueda hasta el hallazgo del ferrocarril o la aparición de los contenedores la tecnología ha desempeñado siempre un papel clave en la configuración del comercio y este fenómeno se está produciendo hoy a una velocidad sin precedentes. Estamos viviendo una era de cambios tecnológicos desconocidos hasta ahora y las distintas innovaciones propiciadas por Internet podrían tener importantes repercusiones. La Internet de las cosas la inteligencia artificial la impresión 3D y las cadenas de bloques (blockchain) por ejemplo pueden cambiar en gran medida cómo se comercia quiénes comercian y qué se comercia.
introduction
Les subventions sont l’un des nombreux instruments de politique assujettis à des règles dans le système commercial multilatéral mais elles soulèvent des questions plus complexes pour les responsables politiques que beaucoup d’autres instruments soumis aux règles du GATT/de l’OMC. Cela tient en partie à ce qu’elles peuvent être définies de différentes manières. Cela tient aussi à ce qu’elles sont employées pour atteindre des objectifs très divers. Même lorsqu’elles ne visent pas le commerce elles peuvent influer sur les courants commerciaux. Les types de subventions dont traite le présent rapport sont essentiellement celles qui confèrent un avantage à certains producteurs nationaux et ont de ce fait un effet sur le commerce. La tâche complexe consistant à déterminer quelles sortes de subventions posent des problèmes du point de vue du système commercial et ce qui peut être fait pour y remédier occupe une place importante dans le programme d’activités de l’OMC /du GATT.
Le commerce international des services de transport aérien: Évolution récente et questions de politique
Comme c’est le cas pour d’autres services de transport la relation entre le transport aérien et le commerce international se situe à deux niveaux. D’une part le transport aérien est commercialisé en tant que service à part entière. D’autre part il constitue un service intermédiaire essentiel pour de nombreux autres types d’échanges qu’il s’agisse de marchandises ou de services (par exemple le tourisme). De nombreuses études ont fait ressortir l’importance d’une infrastructure de transport aérien fiable efficace et efficiente notamment dans les pays en développement pour assurer la matérialisation des avantages du commerce (OMC 2004). Ces études ont également souligné la contribution importante de l’aviation civile internationale au processus de développement et le rôle qu’elle joue dans les décisions commerciales et touristiques d’un grand nombre de personnes. Ce rôle est appelé à se développer avec l’innovation technologique la déréglementation et l’élargissement de l’accès aux marchés pour les entreprises étrangères - autant de facteurs qui rendent le transport aérien plus accessible à une clientèle plus large dans un plus grand nombre de pays.