Doha and Singapore Issues
Transcript of Doha and Singapore Issues
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Presented By :
Kunal Patel
Parth Vala
Nirav Parmar
DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND
Submitted to :
Prof. Y. C. Joshi
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WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION
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History:
Officially commenced on 1stJanuary 1995.Replaced the GATT with 153 member countries.
Represents 97 % of World trade.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.Governed by a ministerial conference, meeting every two years,
a General Council and a Director-General
Objective:
Supervise and Liberalize International Trade.
Provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade
agreements.
Dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants'
adherence to WTO
WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION
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DOHA DEVELOPMENTAL ROUND
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History:
Launched at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar inNovember 2001.
Succeeded the Uruguay round and the three ministerialconferences at Singapore (1996), Geneva (1998) and Seattle (1999).
Objectives:
Lower trade barriers around the world.
Committing all countries to negotiations opening agricultural and
manufacturing markets, as well as trade-in-services (GATS)
negotiations and expanded intellectual property regulation (TRIPS).
Make trade rules fairer for developing countries
DOHA DEVELOPMENTAL ROUND
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Agriculture (including Cotton added in 2003)
Services
Non agricultural market access (NAMA)
TRIPS (multilateral system for registration & notification of
geographical indications)
WTO Rules (AD, Subsidies, RTAs)
Trade and Environment
Special and Differential Treatment Trade Facilitation (added in 2004)
DSU (outside Single-Undertaking)
20 subjects in 9 broad areas:
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KEY ISSUES AT DOHA
November 2001 Minister Youssef
Hussain Kamal of Qatar at the Fourth
Ministerial Conference, Doha.
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Agriculture has become the linchpin of the agenda for both developing
and developed countries
Compulsory licensing of medicines and
patent protection
A review of provisions giving special and differential treatment todeveloping countries.
Resolve problems that developing countries are having in implementing
current trade obligations.
Key Interests for ASEAN countries
Greater market access for industrial goods.
Trade facilitation.
Anti dumping and subsidies.
Technical Co-operation.
Effective dispute settlement mechanism
KEY ISSUES AT DOHA
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Principles of the trading system
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Non-Discrimination
Most favored nation
Reciprocity
Binding and enforceable commitments
TransparencySafety valves
Agreements
Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs)
Principles of the trading system
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Cancun Conference 2003
The conference was aimed at forging agreement on the DDA.
Called for an end to agricultural subsidies within the EU and the
US.
Hong Kong Conference 2005
Countries agreed to phase out all their agricultural exportsubsidies by the end of 2013.
Agreement to introduce duty free, tariff free access for goods.
Geneva Conference 2008
Negotiation over the special safeguard mechanism.
The negotiations collapsed on July 29 over issues of
agricultural trade between the United States, India, and China.
Geneva Conference 2009
On 26 May 2009, agreed to hold a seventh WTO ministerialconference session in Geneva from 30 November3 December 2009.
"The WTO, the Multilateral Trading System and the Current GlobalEconomic Environment"
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Types of Impasses of relevance at DOHA round
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Parties could not agree to launch a negotiation. (Impasse on
initiation.)
Parties could not agree on the subjects for the negotiation
(Impasse on contents.)
After agreeing to start a negotiation the parties take a long time
to come to a mutually agreeable outcome. (Impasse as delay.)
Having agreed to start a negotiation, subsequently the parties
appear unable to conclude the negotiation with an agreement.
(Impasse as high expected failure to agree.)
Having agreed to start a negotiation, subsequently the parties
can only agree to conclude the activity of negotiation without
an agreement. (Impasse as actual failure to agreefortunately
the DDA has not reached this point.)
Types of Impasses of relevance at DOHA round
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INTERESTS OF INDIA
Accelerating integration with
world economy (Globalization).
Foster more rapid growth and
poverty reduction.
Expand access to World Markets.
Voice in formulation of rules and
Decision Making in the WTO.
Guarding against the intrusion of
non-traded matters in WTO.
BENEFITS TO INDIA
Increase in Indias textile & clothing
exports due to the phasing out of
MFA(in 2005).
The reduction in agricultural
subsidies & barriers to export of
agriculture products, agricultural
exports from India also increased.
Market access to a number ofdeveloping countries without trade
discrimination increased.
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Disadvantages for India
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TRIPs agreement went against the Indian Patents Act (1970)
Introduction of product patents in India lead to hike in drug prices by
the MNCs. Hence the poor were left with no generic option
Extension of intellectual property right to agriculture has negative
effects on India and Indian research institutions
Application of TRIMs agreement undermines any plan or strategy of self
reliant growth based on local technology.
Service sectors in India are backward compared to the service sectors indeveloped countries. Hence inclusion of trade in services is detrimental
to the interest of India.
The MFN clause proved to be detrimental to Indias interest & provided
grounds for Chinese invasion in Indian market through dumping.
Disadvantages for India
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Unaddressed Issues
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In order not to discredit itself, globalization would have to squarelyaddress sustainable development and poverty reduction.
There must be an attempt to link the strategies of development tosomething more fundamental, the ends of economic and social
development.
The international trade rules are underpinned by an insufficientappreciation of the adverse impact of rapid liberalization, if it doesnot pay adequate attention to the need to reduce asset and incomeinequalities.
Without substantial investment in the capacity to supply and,equally important, a guaranteed safety net against falling prices andimport surges, sudden liberalization would expose the constituents to
unbearable risk.
Unaddressed Issues
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Agriculture Issues in Developing Nations
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One of the key issues is the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA).
Areas related to Agriculture-Market Access, Domestic Support,
export Competition, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights .
40 to 50 % of support to the farmers in the form of Green Box
subsidies.
Developed countries allowed to retain 80% of their subsidies while
developing countries can subsidize their farmers not more than 10%.
Increasing dependency on imports for food grains could bring strain
on external payment position of these countries.
Agriculture Issues in Developing Nations
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What is MFA all about ?
What is ATC ?
What is TMB ?
What happened to ATC ?
Impact of ATC termination
Textile industry merged into GATT underWTO..
Textile Industry
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Impact of Free Trade on Different products
Poultry
Cigarettes
Liquor Beverages
Tea and Coffee
Coconut Oil
Butter Cheese
ChocolateShaving Brushes
Baby FoodOral Hygiene
Removal of
Quantitative
Restrictions.
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Weakness Of World Trade Organization
WTO is fundamentally undemocratic.
WTO causes trampling of labor and human rights.
Privatization of Essential services.
Fuel issues.
Food issues.
Forest issues.
Creating a Rich mans world.
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Singapore Issue
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A feature of the world trade organization during its first 10 years has been the
impact of Singapore issue of
Investment
Competition
Government procurement and
Trade facilitation
Singapore Issue
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It arises because WTO members decided at 1996 Singapore ministerial conference toset up three new working groups on:
Trade and investment
trade and competition policy and
Transparency in government procurement
They also looked at simplifying trade procedure as it became known trade facilitation.
Developed country members especially the US and EU were satisfied because they had
the issue firmly on the agenda. In contrast mostly developing countries were not agree.
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(1) Trade Facilitation:-
Traders from both developing and developed countries have long pointed at
the vast amount of red tape that still exist in moving good across the
borders.
Documentation requirement often lack transparency and are often
duplicated, a problem compounded by a lack of co operation between
traders and their respective official agencies.
The Individual Singapore issue Examined:
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(2) African regional dimension:
Treading cost including the trade facilitation costs are very high in Africa.
Further more, the lack of reliable trade data within the southern African
custom union (SACU) becomes a serious problem.
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(3) Government Procurement
The role of government in its procurement of goods and services typically
accounts for 10-15% of GDP for developed countries and about 20% of
GDP for developing countries.
WTO members signed the plurilateral agreement on government
procurement at the Uruguay round in 1994.
Most of the signatories countries are developed countries consisting of US,
UK, Canada, EU etc.
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The intension of GPA (Government procurement Agreement) is to ensure
that government decision regarding government purchase of goods and
services do not depend upon where the goods is produced or from where
the services are rendered.
This initial step led to establishment of the working group at 1996
ministerial conference at Singapore to investigate government procurement
transparency- in this way Singapore issue came into existence.
Many countries for a variety of reasons place restrictions on GPA, for both
goods and services. Some will do to encourage domestic industry.
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Question the rationale for bringing investment into the WTO as it was
overburdened and illequipped to handle investment
Question the need for a multilateral framework as it would not grant
developing countries any certainty of additional FDI flows and the BITs
were serving the requirements well with the needed flexibility
Trade and Investment has different effects and different treatment of these
issues was required
Investment policies are closely linked to national development policies in
which developing countries need policy space
Doha mandate is about a clarification process, not about negotiations and
clarity has not been achieved
Trade & InvestmentIndias position
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Competition Policy covers besides, trade policy, investment, industrial etc.
policies, and WTO may not be the forum for Competition policy as such Countries are at different stages of development: Multilateral Competition
Policy assumes convergence of economic and even political interests
Naturally, bilateral agreements are few and confined to developed
countries or to RTAs
Efforts by some Members are to address governmental measures, while
India is interested in enterprisepractices having cross border effects
being addressed Effectiveness of WTO provisions doubtful in the absence of readiness of
Members like the US, EC, Japan etc. for information sharing and DSU.
Peer Review would work against developing countries in view of
asymmetryof market power of WTO Members
Trade &Competition - Indias Position
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For India transparency means gathering full information about a
Members procurement regime - No new commitments for changing or
modifying any aspect of its procurement system;
Regarding coverage, due to the federal structure of the government and
the large number of entities involved it would be very difficult to providedetailed information on all levels of procurement;
Information on the Central Government procurements of goods (not
services) above a particular threshold limit could be considered;
On other issues such as information on laws/ rules; procurement
opportunities; information on procedures; time periods; etc. could be
provided and was easily available already;
India has objected to any prescriptions on domestic review procedures;
Transparency in GP - Indias Position
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India had expressed its reservations regarding the need for multilateral
rules on TF in WTO.
No need for an agreement for what are essentially trade procedures.
Other expert bodies like WCO dealing with similar issues.
Resource implications in terms of modernization, commitment for timely
clearance of goods would be difficult for developing countries to meet.
Not clear how DSU would apply to a Procedural Agreement
Trade Facilitation - Indias Position
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THANK YOU