Transcript EGS EM - North Africa Development Forum

North African Development Forum
Trade for Growth and Job Creation
Marrakesh, 19-20 February 2007
UNCTAD
Robert Hamwey
Trade Negotiations and
Commercial Diplomacy Branch
Division of Trade in Goods and Services,
and Commodities
Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
Focus
UNCTAD
Regionalism and North Africa
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
RTAs
and Regionalism
There has been a proliferation of Regional Trade
Agreements (RTAs)
• RTAs are the mechanism through which
regional integration is advanced
• Bilateral, sub-regional, regional and inter-regional
scales
• North-North, North-South and South-South in
scope
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
Types of exchange
in RTAs
• Merchandise (movement of goods)
‘Shallow integration’
Preferential tariffs, harmonised external tariffs
• Services (movement of labour)
Facilitated temporary immigration, mutual
recognition, harmonised standards
‘Deep integration’
• Investment (movement of capital)
Privatisation, regulatory reform, competition
policy
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
Scales of exchange
UNCTAD
•Within the region (regional i.e., intra-regional)
•With other countries / regions (inter-regional)
•With the world (multilateral) ... MTS (i.e., WTO)
‘Wide Integration’
‘Open Regionalism’
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
Level of liberalisation
UNCTAD
What level of
liberalisation ?
Varies by sector
(and mode)
Investment
? What is optimal ?
Merchandise
Region
Other Regions
Services
World
Scale
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
Motivations
UNCTAD
Advantages of RTAs over the MTS
• Literature suggests significant gains (much more
than RTAs on merchandise alone)
• More easily negotiated between limited set of
participants with similar levels of development,
geographical proximity and cultural ties
• Allow for regional specificity
• Allow for a greater degree of reciprocity
• Reduce free-rider problem
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
Motivations
UNCTAD
Advantages of RTAs over the MTS
• Allow for greater liberalisation of temporary
movement of services suppliers
• Often include cooperative mechanisms for
building institutional and infrastructural capacity
At the same time RTAs complement the MTS
• Facilitating the transition to multilateral
liberalisation by strengthening indigenous supply
capacities and regulatory effectiveness
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
North African
Initiatives
Regional
• UMA
• Agadir
• GAFTA
Inter-Regional
• EuroMed, European Neigborhood (North-South)
• GSTP (South-South)
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
North African
Initiatives
• All have focused on liberalising merchandise trade
• Results have not met expectations
Intra-regional trade remains weak ~ 3 % of total
merchandise trade
• Deeper integration liberalising services trade and
investment remains to be advanced
It can generate dynamic gains needed to boost
intra-regional merchandise trade, including by
improving access to and efficiency of producer
services (... increased export competitiveness)
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
Experiences in
other regions
South-South RTAs on services : An element of
developing countries’ development strategies
• ANDEAN
Of 153 RTAs operational today, 43 are
• MERCOSUR
economic integration agreements in
•
CARICOM
services notified under GATS Article V
• ASEAN
• SADC
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
Possible Next steps
for North Africa
• Define a region for deeper integration (UMA,
ECA-NA, GAFTA, EuroMed, ... )
• Promote regional trade and investment through
trade facilitation and regulatory reform
• Ensure preference margins for the region to avoid
the ‘hub and spoke’ effect and attract regional
investment
• Identify sectors where the region has a strong
potential to enhance supply capacity through
preferential treatment and a unified industrial
policy in an RTA
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
Possible Next steps
for North Africa
• Negotiate progressive multilateral liberalisation
to allow time for the development of regional
capacities
• Identify sectors where the region has a weak
potential to enhance supply capacity on its own
and where extra-regional investment through interregional and multilateral liberalisation is desirable
• Identify sectors where participation in production
chains can be enhanced through inter-regional and
multilateral agreements
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
Assistance from
UNCTAD
Working closely with ECA and other international
organisations, UNCTAD is ready to assist with:
• Sectoral analyses and assessments of optimal scale
of liberalisation
UNCTAD
actively
supports
and and
• Elaboration
of regional
agreements
on services
investment
provides capacity building under the
• RegulatoryAid-for-Trade
reform and competition
policy
Initiative
• WTO accession (Algeria, Libya, Sudan)
• WTO negotiations, and in particular GATS
negotiations
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Multilateral
Negotiations
& Regionalism
UNCTAD
Thank you for your attention.
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