Transcript International Negotiations and Trade Policy

The WTO
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The Uruguay Round
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Its most important results are:
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Trade Liberalization
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Trade liberalization
Administrative reforms
The average tariff imposed by advanced countries
decreased by almost 40%.
 More important is the move to liberalize trade in two
important sectors: agricultural and clothing.
From the GATT to the WTO
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Much of the publicity surrounding the Uruguay Round
focused on its creation of the WTO.
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The WTO
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How different is the WTO from the GATT?
The GATT was a provisional agreement, while the
WTO is a full-fledged international organization.
 The GATT applied only to trade in goods, while the
WTO included rules on trade in services (the General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)) and on
international application of international property
rights.
 The WTO has a new “dispute settlement” procedure
which is designed to reach judgments in a much
shorter time.
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The WTO
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Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Established: 1 January 1995
Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94)
Membership: 146 countries (as of April 2003)
accounting for over 97% of world trade.
Budget: 155 million Swiss francs for 2003
Secretariat staff: 560
Head: Director-General, Supachai Panitchpakdi
It does not have branch offices outside Geneva.
Since decisions are taken by the members
themselves, the Secretariat does not have the
decision-making role that other international
bureaucracies are given.
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Members - Developing Countries
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The WTO
Functions:
• Administering WTO trade agreements
• Forum for trade negotiations
• Handling trade disputes
• Monitoring national trade policies
• Technical assistance and training for
developing countries
• Cooperation with other international
organizations
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Dispute Settlement Procedure
of the WTO
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301 disputes have been initiated under the dispute
settlement system of the WTO since its creation less
than 9 years ago.
Country
Complaints/ Respondent
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Canada
United States
European Communities
China
Japan
India
24
75
62
1
11
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81
47
0
13
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The dispute settlement has
following stages
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Consultation between the Governments involved in the dispute.
60 days to reach a settlement.
The case is then examined by a panel body consisting of three
legal/technical experts. The Panel has six to nine months to
produce a detailed report.
If the Panel report is appealed, an Appellate body is set up
which takes two to three months to examine the appeal and
report its finding.
The DSB then decides if both the panel and the appellate report
is to be adopted. These reports can only be rejected by
consensus from all the parties involved. If the accused party is
found to be innocent the case stops there. If not then we move to
the third stage.
The accused government is given a reasonable period of time to
implement the DSB’s ruling.
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The dispute settlement has
following stages
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In case there is a dispute regarding the proper
implementation of the ruling: There is no clear
procedure to handle such disagreements.
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In case the accused government concedes to nonimplementation
 members generally agree that the complaining government
can seek compensation, suspension of concessions or
authorization to retaliate. The authorization is given by the
DSB within 30 days of the expiry of the time frame for
implementation. .
Any disagreements regarding the suspension of
concessions or retaliation are referred for
arbitrations.
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