The WTO will also examine small economy proposals. The upcoming Global Aid for Trade Review is perhaps a good opportunity to examine what is next for Aid for Trade (AfT). Wto next meeting free#The Enhanced Integration Framework (EIF) and other support programmes such as TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), and others that support the African Continental Free Trade Area), are designed to help the poorest countries to make the most of trade rules. A new framework to support trade and development in the poorest and most vulnerable economiesĭevelopment is integral to trade provisions, but we also need a debate on what the future Aid for Trade framework for LDCs might look like. The world has faced many shocks in the recent years, and identifying appropriate roles for trade to help address the worst outcomes from shocks, and avoiding protectionism, remains crucial. In this context, the WTO secretariat (including through its research and statistical services) should perhaps play a more active role now in fostering topical as well as structural debates amongst members around the following short term and long-term issues. Some may have questioned whether the WTO still has an effective role in trade liberalisation or in setting and policing trade rules, but the above suggest that the WTO is still relevant, perhaps in more limited ways than expected, and should now focus more on fostering global trade policy debates until the environment is more appropriate for more ambitious trade rules. Issues for the immediate and long-term future And several WTO members (including EU, Kenya, Ecuador and New Zealand as co-leads) agreed to form a Coalition of Trade Ministers for Climate. There was attention to trade and the environment in the agreement on fisheries. MC12 started exploring links between rules governing trade and the environment. The WTO can engage in cross-cutting issues (trade and … ) that matter for long-term economic performance. The debates shape more effective policy responses, including the need to address more pressing capacity issues as my colleague Maximiliano Mendez-Parra explains. There are different ways in which countries respond, with different economic interests, but the Declaration on the Emergency Response to Food Insecurity and Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Preparedness for Future Pandemics, including around the TRIPS waiver, suggests the WTO can engage in relevant discussions, including those that matter for the poorest countries. WTO members have engaged in active debates and can agree statements on topical issues that matter to everyone’s daily lives in an explicit way. The WTO is a useful forum to hold discussions on issues that matter in people’s daily lives. Of course, much still needs to be done, especially around taking more trade commitments in agriculture and services. While this is perhaps not the ambitious liberalisation that the WTO system may have envisaged back in 1995, the WTO has avoided paralysis and regression, and continues to provide signals for trade policy around the world, including for regional or Free Trade Agreement (FTA) discussions. The same conclusion applies to the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions until the next MC. It is also significant in the sense that it cuts across economic, social and environment spheres, and as is often the case, involves different interests amongst WTO members. The deal on fisheries subsidies was an obvious deal that had been in the waiting for many years, but members managed this deal only now, which is good news even if it can go further. What have we learned from MC12? World Trade Organization (WTO) members can still conclude trade deals.
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