Text Box: Recent Developments in WTO 

 

 


By Shravani Prakash

 

 

 

*                     WTO Cotton Sub-Committee

*                     Novel Debate on EU’s food regulation

*                     The DSB establishes panel in reference to aircraft subsidy dispute

*                     Trade Policy reviews

*                     Trade Negotiations Committee Report

 

 

 

 

WTO Cotton Sub-Committee

 

In March, the Cotton Four (the four African countries that originally proposed the Cotton Initiative - Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali) clarified their proposal for cutting and eventually eliminating trade-distorting domestic in a new paper discussed in the Cotton Sub-Committee. The new details included a formula designed to ensure that the cuts on cotton were deeper than those for agricultural as a whole. A number of members have supported the proposal. The USA, however, said that the proposal would not put the talks on the path to success.

 

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy meanwhile started his consultations on the development aspects of cotton as instructed by the Hong Kong Ministerial.

 

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Novel Debate on EU’s Food Regulation

 

According to the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee, a proposed revision of the EU regulation on novel foods aroused the concern of many developing countries, mainly from Latin America.

 

Colombia, Ecuador and Peru said the current regulation was designed primarily to deal with new technologies, such as genetic modification, but it affected their ability to export “small exotic traditional products” based on their rich biodiversity. They said they were concerned that the proposed modifications to the regulation would not resolve these problems. Some of these products have been available in their countries for centuries and should not be lumped together with new technologies such as genetic modification, they said. They were supported by Paraguay, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay, among Latin American countries, and also Benin (which asked when a product is “new”), and India.

 

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Panel for Aircraft Subsidy Dispute

 

The DSB, on February 17, 2006, established a panel to help  resolve a number of procedural matters that have risen in the Dispute US measures affecting trade in large civil aircraft brought by the EC.

 

The EC requested for the second time the establishment of panel to resolve a number of procedural “imbroglios” that have risen in the panel established on 20 July 2005. The EC explained at the last DSB meeting that this “limbo” needed to be resolved quickly since the EC considered that it has been deprived of its rights to access the documents relevant, in particular regarding NASA and Departments of Defence subsidies, to the dispute.

 

The US expressed regret about the EC’s action, as it considered that the best approach would have been a mutual agreement on this panel request. Although the panel would be established at this DSB meeting, the US asked for consultations with the EC regarding the relationship between this panel and the one established on 20 July 2005. Furthermore, the US added that it was not in position to accept EC’s request to begin an information-gathering process. According to the US, the so-called Annex V procedures could not start until the parties agreed on the modalities, noting that the Annex V procedures initiated on 23 September 2005 for the civil craft dispute were inadequate.

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Trade Policy Reviews

 

The Trade Policy Review for the United States was released in March 2006. According to the WTO Secretariat report, the US has undergone rapid economic growth since its last  Trade Policy Review in 2004, aided by the openness and transparency of its trade regime.  The world’s largest import market and a key engine of global growth continued making incremental changes to its trade regime, including liberalization on an MFN and preferential bases. The report notes, nonetheless, that market access barriers and other distorting measures, notably subsidies, persist in a few but important areas, and that addressing these distortions would benefit U.S. consumers and taxpayers and help strengthen the global economy.

 

Some of the other Trade Reviews released in the first quarter of 2006 were UAE, China, Djibouti, Israel and Malaysia.

 

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Trade Negotiations Committee Report

 

Director General Pascal Lamy, as the chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee, presented the report of its first formal meeting since the Hong Kong Ministerial to the General Council in February.

 

The Director General in his statement noted the “very detailed timelines” in the Hong Kong Declaration and urged negotiators “to intensify contacts with other delegations and with your capitals, to move us towards the elements we need to conclude the Doha Round at the end of this year”.

 

Mr Lamy said that from the meeting there was a clear message that all members attached highest importance to making progress in all the areas of negotiations in keeping with the Single Undertaking. He said although Agriculture and NAMA would play the key role in leading the talks to a successful conclusion, it is important that all other areas of negotiations must be concluded at the same time as well. The Director General said that the calendar of work with firm deadlines set out in the Hong Kong Declaration governed the work that had to be carried out in this year.

 

Regarding the process of achieving an end to the negotiations, Mr Lamy said that the pre-Hong Kong process had served well, and therefore should be maintained and improved upon. He said that “a transparent inclusive process, based on a bottoms-up approach is clearly in the interest of us all”.

 

The Director General underlined the fact that it was not enough to just continue talking about calendar and process but it was time to turn to substance. He stressed that the only way to make progress across the board in the Doha Round Negotiations was by focussing on two main elements, namely numbers and words, texts.

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