Alicia Nicholls
Agreement has been reached in the negotiations on a climate deal. The final text of the COP21 Paris Agreement has been released. Analysis coming soon! Click below for the full text:
Author: caribbeantradelaw
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WTO DG Reports no acceleration in trade restrictions but removal is slow
Alicia Nicholls
The World Trade Organisation Director General’s report on trade-related development entitled “Overview of Developments in the International Trading Environment” was released yesterday, just days before WTO trade ministers meet in Nairobi, Kenya for the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference.
It comes against the backdrop of an uneven and uncertain global economic recovery and of the WTO’s downgrade in September this year of its forecast for world merchandise trade volume growth to 2.8% for 2015 (down from 3.3% in the April forecast), and for 2016 to 3.9% (down from 4% in the April forecast). The review period for the current report is October 2014-October 2015.
Some key findings from the report:
- The 222 new trade-facilitating measures which members implemented over the period, an average of nearly 19 measures per month, was the second-highest since 2008 when monitoring began.
- There has been no acceleration in the introduction of trade restrictive measures from 2014. However, as only 25% of the restrictive measures recorded since October 2008 have been eliminated,the stockpile of restrictions as of October 2015 increased by 17% from October 2014.
- Concern remains about the unsatisfactory compliance by members in regards to the WTO’s various transparency mechanisms.
- WTO members continue to accelerate their pace of negotiating regional trade agreements. Eleven RTAs were notified to the WTO during the review period, compared to 9 during the last period.
The full report and the WTO Deputy Director General’s statement to the Trade Policy Review Body may be accessed here.
Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. You can also read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.
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WTO General Council Agrees Draft Ministerial Decision on Small Economies
Alicia Nicholls
On November 30th, the General Council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreed on a draft ministerial decision on small economies which affirms WTO Members’ commitment to the work programme on small economies which was adopted in 2002.
The Draft Decision
Under the Draft Decision agreed to this week, WTO members meeting as the General Council have:
- Affirmed their commitment to the Work Programme on Small Economies
- Taken note of the work carried out since 2013, including on the challenges and opportunities faced by small economies in linking into global value chains in trade in goods and services
- Instructed the CTD to continue its work in Dedicated Session under the overall responsibility of the General Council.
- Instructed the Dedicated Session to consider in further detail the various submissions that have been received to date, examine any additional proposals that Members might wish to submit and, where possible, and within its mandate, make recommendations to the General Council on any of these proposals.
- Indicated that the General Council will direct relevant subsidiary bodies to frame responses to the trade-related issues identified by the CTD with a view to making recommendations for action.
- Instructed the WTO Secretariat to provide relevant information and factual analysis for discussion among Members in the CTD’s Dedicated Session
- Requested the WTO Secretariat to also conduct work on the challenges small economies experience in their efforts to reduce trade costs, particularly in the area of trade facilitation.
- Mandated the CTD in Dedicated Session to continue monitoring the progress of the small economy proposals in WTO bodies and in negotiating groups
The Draft Decision has been forwarded to the Ministerial Conference to be held in Nairobi, Kenya later this month for adoption by the WTO ministers.
Brief background on Small Economies
The Small Vulnerable Economies (SVEs) do not form an official sub-category of WTO members but are one of the negotiating coalitions in the WTO which have been active in the negotiations on agriculture, NAMA and fisheries rules.
These small states, which account for only a small fraction of world trade, pushed for WTO recognition of the unique challenges they face in participating in world trade because of their small size, concentration of exports, distance from major markets, lack of economies of scale and limited trade capacity. They also expressed concern about what they saw was an erosion of their policy space.
The countries which have been spearheading the SVE initiative are small island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific and smaller Central and South America nations like Honduras, El Salvador and Paraguay.
The Doha Ministerial Declaration of November 20, 2001, which provided the negotiating mandate for the Doha Development Agenda negotiations, provided for a work programme “to examine issues relating to the trade of small economies”. Paragraph 35 of the Declaration states the objective of the work programme is to:
frame responses to the trade-related issues identified for the fuller integration of small, vulnerable economies into the multilateral trading system, and not to create a sub-category of WTO Members.
The Work Programme on small states is being done under the auspices of the General Council which instructed the Council on Trade and Development (CTD) in March 2002 to hold dedicated sessions on the work programme and make periodic progress reports to the General Council, making the work programme on small states an agenda item of the General Council.
Under paragraph 41 of the Hong Kong Ministerial 2005 a two-pronged track was agreed where the CTD was instructed, under the General Council’s responsibility, to continue the work in the Dedicated Session and to monitor progress of the small economies’ proposals in the negotiating and other bodies. The aim of this was to be able to provide responses to the trade-related issues of small economies.
So far several Ministerial and General Council decisions have been taken and proposals by SVEs have been made in areas such as agriculture, industrial goods, service trade and trade facilitation. These decisions as well as proposals are routinely compiled by the WTO Secretariat to show what has been achieved under this agenda item so far. The text of the most recent WTO Secretariat compilation paper of October 16, 2015 may be found here.
Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. Please note that the views expressed in this article are solely hers. You can also read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.
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Report of Haiti’s 2nd WTO Trade Policy Review now online!
Alicia Nicholls
Following up to my previous article, Haiti has completed its second WTO Trade Policy Review which took place this week December 2nd-4th. The report of Haiti’s second review is now online.
Haiti’s Economic and Trade Performance
Some of the key summary points from the 2015 report in regards to Haiti’s economic and trade performance are as follows:
- Haiti’s economy has been recovering slowly since the devastating earthquake in January 2010.
- The fiscal deficit is largely financed by external grants and poses a considerable problem for medium-term expenditure sustainability.
- The Haitian Government has implemented a set of measures to increase revenues and reduce the level of expenditure.
- Haiti has maintained a large trade deficit for many years.
- Remittances sent by Haitian workers living abroad are the main source of foreign exchange in the domestic economy.
- Haiti’s main exports are textiles and clothing.
- Services contribute around 56% of GDP.
- Financial services still make only a modest contribution to GDP, although banking institutions have rapidly increased their holdings in recent years.
Haiti’s Trade Policy Framework
Some of the summary points in regards to its trade policy framework are as follows:
- Generally speaking, Haiti’s trade and investment laws are relatively old.
- Haiti has not signed any of the WTO plurilateral agreements.
- Haiti receives non-reciprocal preferential treatment from a number of developed countries under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
- Tariffs are still among Haiti’s principal trade policy tools, as well as being an important source of income, since customs revenue accounts for around one third of fiscal revenue each year.
- There have been no major changes to the export regime since the previous Trade Policy Review.
- Haiti has no legislation on competition, standardization or contingency trade measures.
- Although a major step forward was made with the adoption of the legislation on copyright and related rights, the system of intellectual property protection remains weak, however, and trademarks are frequently infringed.
- The agricultural sector continues to play a key role in food security and employment.The mining sector makes only a marginal contribution to GDP, despite its considerable potential.
- Contributing to the majority of Haiti’s exports, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP has remained relatively stable over recent years, at around 8%.
The full WTO Secretariat report, the Government report and other documents from Haiti’s second trade policy review may be accessed here.
Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. Please note that the views expressed in this article are solely hers. You can also read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.
Caribbean Trade Law and Development 