Economic research and trade policy analysis
Introduction
Trade the exchange of goods services and information between individuals or groups is as old as human history. Expanding trade is a central component of the increasing connectedness among countries.
Definición de las subvenciones
En las etapas iniciales del GATT se prestó escasa atención a la repercusión de las subvenciones en el comercio. Sin embargo las partes contratantes pronto se dieron cuenta de la necesidad de abordar las subvenciones para salvaguardar el valor de las concesiones arancelarias acordadas. Un país puede debilitar los compromisos de acceso a los mercados que ha contraído proporcionando subvenciones a las ramas de producción que compiten con las importaciones. Además debido a las subvenciones concedidas a los exportadores que compiten en los mercados de terceros países se puede desviar el comercio de un país que había confiado en el acceso negociado a esos mercados. Estas inquietudes propiciaron la elaboración de disciplinas sobre las subvenciones más estrictas que las previstas inicialmente en el GATT (de 1947). Un paso importante fue la negociación del “Código de Subvenciones” de carácter plurilateral durante la Ronda de Tokio y posteriormente del Acuerdo sobre Subvenciones y Medidas Compensatorias (Acuerdo SMC) y del Acuerdo sobre la Agricultura.
The influence of customer buying behaviour on product flow patterns between trading countries, and the implications for regulatory policy
This paper is designed to provide a more granular perspective than the traditional aggregate view that economists take of supply chains. In particular I want to add a behavioural dimension and introduce a more dynamic methodology capable of addressing the increasingly volatile operating environments that are likely to pervade future trading conditions within and between countries whether developed or developing.
Vers une nouvelle ère numérique
Cette section décrit l’essor des technologies numériques et identifie les facteurs technologiques qui ont contribué à leur croissance. Elle examine comment les technologies numériques transforment l’économie en créant de nouveaux marchés de nouveaux biens et de nouveaux services et elle aborde certaines préoccupations apparues en parallèle concernant la confidentialité la concentration du marché l’incidence sur la productivité et la fracture numérique. Cette section passe aussi en revue les défis qu’il faut relever sur le plan de la méthodologie et des données pour mesurer la valeur des transactions numériques et le commerce numérique et elle présente des estimations provenant d’organisations internationales d’autorités nationales ainsi que des rapports financiers de plusieurs entreprises bien connues.
How do we prepare for the technology-induced reshaping of trade?
This section examines how international trade cooperation can help governments all over the world harness digital technologies and seize the new trading opportunities they will create for firms both large and small. Section D.1 summarizes the main opportunities and challenges that arise with the expansion of digital trade. Section D.2 provides examples of the policies that governments put in place to exploit these opportunities and to address these challenges. Section D.3 then considers whether and how international cooperation can help governments exploit the gains from digital trade cope with the challenges and at the same time achieve their public policy objectives now and in the future.
Introduction
Provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947) began 70 years ago in 1948 and the same year the first GATT dispute was initiated. In total 316 disputes were brought under the GATT 1947 and related agreements in its almost 50 years of provisional application.
Introducción
En todo el mundo los Gobiernos intervienen de manera activa y abierta en las economías con el fin de impulsar la innovación generar nuevas tecnologías y fomentar las industrias de vanguardia. Esas intervenciones pueden tener repercusiones positivas o negativas especialmente en la economía mundial hiperconectada de hoy en día. Por una parte pueden ampliar los conocimientos aumentar la productividad y difundir las herramientas esenciales de crecimiento y desarrollo mundiales. Pero por otra parte también pueden distorsionar el comercio desviar las inversiones y beneficiar a una economía en detrimento de otra. La cooperación y las normas internacionales son más necesarias que nunca para asegurar que el nuevo interés de los Gobiernos por las políticas en materia de innovación y tecnología maximice los efectos indirectos positivos y minimice los negativos y para asegurar también que la carrera por el liderazgo tecnológico no se transforme en una lucha por el dominio tecnológico. El Informe sobre el comercio mundial 2020 analiza el papel de las políticas en materia de innovación y tecnología en una economía mundial cada día más digitalizada y explica la función de la OMC en ese contexto cambiante.
Remerciements
Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2006 a été rédigé sous la supervision d’Alejandro Jara Directeur général adjoint. Patrick Low Directeur de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques a dirigé l’équipe chargée de la rédaction. Les principaux auteurs du rapport sont Marc Bacchetta Bijit Bora K. Michael Finger Marion Jansen Alexander Keck Clarisse Morgan Roberta Piermartini et Robert Teh. Les statistiques commerciales ont été fournies par les statisticiens de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques dont les travaux ont été coordonnés par Guy Karsenty Julia de Verteuil Andreas Maurer et Jürgen Richtering.
Agradecimientos
El Informe sobre el Comercio Mundial 2005 ha sido elaborado bajo la supervisión general del Director General Adjunto Dr. Kipkorir Aly Azad Rana. Patrick Low Director de la División de Estudios Económicos y Estadística dirigió el equipo encargado de redactar el Informe. Los autores principales del Informe son Marc Bachetta Bijit Bora K. Michael Finger Marion Jansen Alexander Keck Roberta Piermartini y Robert Teh. Hildegunn Kyvik Nordas ex funcionaria de la División de Estudios Económicos y Estadística es coautora del ensayo sobre deslocalización. Mireille Cossy de la División de Comercio de Servicios también colaboró en ese ensayo. Robert Anderson de la División de Propiedad Intelectual y Pierre Latrille de la División de Comercio de Servicios son coautores del ensayo sobre servicios de transporte aéreo. Lee Ann Jackson de la División de Agricultura y Productos Básicos es coautora de las partes del Capítulo II relativas a las normas. 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.
Domestic framework for making and enforcing policies
A core objective of accession results is to establish a legal foundation for the conduct and management of trade policy based on the rule of law. Implementation of accession commitments hinges on the existence of an effective domestic framework for making and enforcing policies. Customarily this is described in the third chapter of working party reports. Twenty-eight of the members that acceded pursuant to procedures in Article XII of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO Agreement) have undertaken a total of fifty-five accession-specific commitments in this regard. The uniquely definable pattern that has emerged from WTO Accession Protocols confirms the uniform applicability of the WTO Agreement throughout and across the entirety of the customs territory of the new member the exclusive authority of central governments to implement and enforce WTO rules the strengthening of due process and the rule of law and the precedence of ratified international treaties over domestic legislation in many instances. These commitments are integral to the WTO Agreement and are enforceable under the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding. Although normative and standard they confirm the long-standing accession practice that a range of original members have not confirmed and from which several deviate. This chapter studies the specific accession-specific commitments in the domestic framework for making and enforcing policies. It also investigates the relationship between Accession Protocols and domestic legal systems and asks whether original members undertook similar obligations.
Mutual recognition of services regulation at the WTO
Mutual recognition is a useful tool for international liberalization in particular contexts. However it has two types of limit and to the extent that it may exceed these limits it poses two important types of risk.
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.
Export duty commitments: The treaty dialogue and the pattern of commitments
This chapter focuses pursuant to Article XII accession-specific commitments on the evolving disciplines on export duties distinguished from the broader setting of export restrictions. From a rules angle export duties were not subject to disciplines in contrast to import duties that have classically been bound in schedules of concessions and commitments on goods since GATT 1947. Pursuant to Article XI:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 (rules for ‘quantitative restrictions’) prohibitions or restrictions on imports and exports such as bans quotas and restrictive licences are generally prohibited except for duties taxes or other charges. In economic operations export duties with price discrimination effects between domestic and foreign producers have resulted in efficiency losses and anti-competitiveness and have undermined economic welfare. In accession negotiations the establishment of disciplines and improvement in economic welfare has framed the treaty dialogue. This dialogue has made evident a range of issues that are systemic and that have involved questions on international economic cooperation revolving around the broader use of export restrictions and their overlap with export duties. This chapter reviews the substance of the treaty dialogue on export duties and identifies the extent and pattern of specific obligations on export duties in the Article XII Accession Protocols deposited thus far. The analysis shows that fifteen Article XII members have accepted accession-specific obligations on the application of export duties. These obligations range across ‘abiding’ by the provisions of the WTO Agreement; ‘binding and/or fixing’ applied export duty rates; and ‘reducing’ ‘eliminating’ or ‘foreclosing’ on the use of such duties. Of precedential value is the modification of the classical 1947 architecture of the GATT Goods Schedule to create a Part V on Export Duties in the context of the WTO accession commitments of Russia in its Goods Schedule. This chapter argues that accession-specific commitments have deepened and extended original WTO rules governing export duties as an instrument of trade policy. The overall systemic effect has been positive namely to constrain reduce eliminate and/or bind hence contributing to clarity and predictability of the rules with pro-competitive effects enhancement of market access opportunities and improvements in economic welfare. The chapter argues that WTO accession-specific obligations for export duties have set the multilateral standard for disciplines in this area. Nevertheless it is worrying that even as the disciplines on export duties are being formulated and strengthened via Article XII members the facts suggest the higher use of such export duties by original members over the period from 2003 to 2009.