ICTSD » Trade Rules and Competitiveness

WTO Dispute Settlement - Meeting Domestic Challenges

interns — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:39:27 +0000

In fifteen years of dispute settlement the WTO has seen over 400 cases, whereof forty percent have been initiated by developing countries. In fact, some developing countries have become confident users of the system and currently seven out of the eleven most frequent complainants are developing countries. The majority, however, continue to be hampered in making use of the system as they face structural and systemic challenges. In particular, the importance of ‘national legal capacity’, including the existence of structures that facilitate the coordination among public and private stakeholders is often underestimated. Against this backdrop there is a great need for generating analysis on the various country experiences to inform activities aimed at strengthening legal capacity in developing countries.

In response to this need, ICTSD has engaged in a bottom-up assessment of the strategies that individual developing countries have developed to enhance their ability to make use of WTO dispute settlement and to coordinate such activities among public and private stakeholders on a national level. The outcome is the form of nine country studies is now presented in the book Dispute Settlement at the WTO – The Developing Country Experience. Countries covered in the analysis include Brazil, Argentina, China, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya. The publication concludes with a comprehensive list of recommendations. For further information kindly consult our webpage at: http://ictsd.org/i/dsu/98179/.

Los textiles y la confección en Centroamérica

Paolo Ghisu — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:38:13 +0000

El sector textil y confección en Centroamérica ha ocupado un rol importante en la atracción de inversión extranjera directa (IED), la creación de empleos, y las exportaciones en las últimas décadas. Sin embargo, la actual crisis económica mundial, el final de las cuotas impuestas a las exportaciones chinas, y la erosión de preferencias como resultado de las negociaciones comerciales bilaterales, regionales y multilaterales están generando un sinnúmero de desafíos. La desaceralación de las exportaciones, los bajos costos y la alta competitividad de China, así como la relativamente baja integración de las pequeñas y medianas empresas con el sector exportador son algunos de estos desafíos.
Sin embargo, este panorama presenta también la posibilidad de abrir un debate sobre futuros escenarios de reestructuración del sector a fin de que éste se posicione de forma más competitiva en la economía mundial. Asimismo, el rol del sector en la creación de un modelo de desarrollo sostenible que incluya objetivos económicos, sociales, y ambientales en Centroamérica se vuelve esencial en un debate como éste.
En noviembre del 2007, el Centro Internacional para el Comercio y el Desarrollo Sostenible (ICTSD por sus siglas en inglés), la Asociación de Investigación y Estudios Sociales (ASIES) y el Instituto de Investigación Aplicada y Promoción del Desarrollo Local (NITLAPAN) sostuvieron con el apoyo de la Agencia Suiza para el Desarrollo (COSUDE) una serie de discusiones e intercambios a fin de identificar los sectores prioritarios para la región. El sector textil y confección fue finalmente seleccionado.
A partir del 2008, se iniciaron dos estudios en Nicaragua y Guatemala respectivamente a fin de caracterizar el sector en ambos países y plantear posibles estrategias de reconversión desde una perspectiva de desarrollo sostenible. El Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales y Económicas (IDIES) de Guatemala se integró al equipo de investigación de ese país. Los hallazgos preliminares de dichos estudios fueron presentados a actores del gobierno, la sociedad civil y el sector privado en Nicaragua y Guatemala durante el mes de marzo del 2009.
Actualmente, ICTSD, ASIES, IDIES y NITLAPAN organizan el diálogo regional “Los textiles y la confección en Centroamérica: Hacia una hoja de ruta para alcanzar el desarrollo sostenible” en Antigua, Guatemala, el 13 de julio, 2009.
Esta reunión tiene como propósito discutir los pasos a seguir en el marco de una posible reconversión del sector textil y confección y las negociaciones comerciales internacionales a fin de apuntar a la consecusión de objetivos de desarrollo sostenible en Centroamérica.

TRIPS: Members Differ on Whether to Include Biodiversity in Horizontal Negotiations

Malena Sell — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:53:11 +0000

As negotiations in key areas of the Doha Round, such as agriculture and industrial goods, have moved into a stage where countries are looking at the overall compromises needed to clinch a deal, Members are struggling to decide how to move issues related to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement forward. Among the contentious issues is a long-standing debate on whether the TRIPS agreement should be amended to bring it into line with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in terms of disclosure requirements. The other outstanding issues relate to the creation of a register for geographical indications (GIs), and GI extension.

Chair of the TRIPS special sessions, Ambassador Manzoor Ahmad (Pakistan), authored a document (TN/IP/18, available at http://docsonline.wto.org) on negotiations regarding the creation of a multilateral system for registering GIs - product names associated with places and characteristics - for wines and spirits. Ahmad’s report declined to discuss the TRIPS biodiversity amendment or GI extension issues, calling them “beyond the mandate” of the special session he chairs, which is limited only to issues regarding the GI registry for wines and spirits. A second report (WT/GC/W/591 - TN/C/W/50), issued by Director-General Pascal Lamy, covered the two other issues.

Included in Lamy’s paper was reference to an official submission (WT/GC/W/590 - TN/C/W/49) by India last week to the highest-level negotiating body, the Trade Negotiations Committee that operates under the WTO General Council. India submitted the document, which argues in favour of the TRIPS biodiversity amendment, on behalf of a large group of developing countries, including the least developed country group and the Africa Caribbean and Pacific group. The amendment in question concerns the introduction of a mandatory requirement for the disclosure of origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge in patent applications.

Meanwhile, two recent ‘non-papers’ reflect the division in negotiations, reasoning either for or against the inclusion of these three IP issues in the agenda of the forthcoming TRIPS Council meeting, scheduled to take place as part of the horizontal negotiations in the overall Doha round.

On the one hand, some WTO Members believe that these issues should be part of the horizontal process in order to have modality texts that reflect ministerial agreement on the key parameters for negotiating a final draft legal text as part of the single undertaking. Yet other Members maintain that no further guidance is necessary since the existing mandate is sufficiently clear and technical work can and should be pursued on this basis.

The TRIPS Council will take place from 17-18 June.

ICTSD reporting; “Reports on WTO IP Negotiations released,” INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WATCH.