“Assessing current proposals on horizontal disciplines on domestic regulation: what are the next steps?”


21st April 2005 • Co-organised with Christian Aid; European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)

The aim of these consultations is to assess current proposals on horizontal disciplines on domestic regulation in the context of new research and discussion. The consultations are addressed to selected delegates in charge of services in the context of the Doha Round as well as representatives from civil society Inter-Governmental Organisations and academics.

While the Working Party on Domestic regulation (WPDR) has been working since the late 1990s on the development of horizontal disciplines on domestic regulation, few practical results have been achieved so far. In recent years, the EU, Japan, and various developing countries have put forward proposals on horizontal disciplines on domestic regulation. These proposals have addressed to a limited extent the mandate of Article VI: 4 of the GATS, including licensing requirements and procedures, qualifications requirements and procedures, and technical standards. Issues discussed include definitions, transparency rules, facilitation and due process features, and the development of disciplines to ensure that regulations do not become unnecessary barriers to trade. Only a handful of the proposals have directly addressed issues such as regulations applicable to mode 4 and special and differential treatment for developing countries. There is therefore a need to give these issues particular attention.

Sound WTO disciplines on domestic regulation are widely seen as a promoter of key trade and sustainable development objectives. In an attempt to stimulate the current debate, ICTSD has asked independent services expert Julian Arkell to prepare a research paper to review and assess the potential impact of proposals currently on the table, as well as to identify common features and differences. The research will also identify missing elements in the development of disciplines on domestic regulation, recognition of which could help strike an appropriate balance between facilitating the pursuit of public policy objectives and ensuring that domestic regulation does not constitute a barrier to trade. Special emphasis will be placed on the applicability of horizontal disciplines for mode four and the incorporation of S&D treatment.

ICTSD would also take the opportunity of these consultations to present the second phase of its Trade in Services and Sustainable Development Programme. This will, among other things, discuss and clarify key sustainable development issues and prospects as they apply to the international agenda on trade in services; enhance understanding of the options for implementing public policy objectives; assess the impacts and potential benefits of the GATS Agreement on sustainable development; and assist in the identification of issues of interest of developing countries in the request and offer phase. The second part of the meeting would seek to identify relevant issues for research, dialogue and discussion under the second phase of the Trade in Services and Sustainable Development Programme. While the programme has prepared a list of tentative issues to be addressed, the consultations will help ICTSD better target its activities and ensure that they are useful for all relevant stakeholders.

Agenda

9h30 - 9h40: Opening remarks by Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Executive Director ICTSD

9h40 -10h00: “Assessing current proposals on domestic regulations: which are thenext steps?, by Julian Arkell, independent consultant

10h00 - 10h30. Comments by Roberto Bosh (Mission of Argentina) and Sabrina Varma/Gale Raj (South Centre)

10h30 - 10h45: Introduction ICTSD Trade in Services Programme: David Vivas Eugui, Programme Manager

10h45 - 12h00: Open discussion

Programme

11:30 -11:45 Welcome and introductory remarks

Christophe Bellmann, Programmes Director, ICTSD

11:45 - 13:45 Session I : Challenges, options and strategies for addressing the
development dimension of EPAs through GATT Article XXIV

Moderator: Lucamonge Roffarello, UNDP

Article 34(4) of the Cotonou Agreement notes that economic and trade cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP) “shall be implemented in full conformity with the provisions of the WTO, including special and differential treatment, taking account of the Parties’ mutual interests and their respective levels of development.” Are the conditions for a “WTO-Compatible” regional trade agreement (RTA) outlined under GATT Article XXIV supportive of the above objectives? What are the strategies and options for pursuing changes to GATT Article XXIV within the WTO Doha Round Negotiations?

11:45 - 12:30 Panel presentations

  • Background on GATT Article XXIV and the development dimension of EPAs: Sanoussi Bilal, ECDPM
  • “Substantially all trade” in GATT Article XXIV: principle, definitions and effects and the scope for S&DT: Taisuke Ito, UNCTAD
  • Reviewing GATT Article XXIV in the Doha Round: Strategies and possible approaches towards embedding S&DT in GATT Article XXIV : Edward Chisanga, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Zambia to the United Nations
  • Making EPAs development-compatible - principles for a development-first EU-ACP trade relationship and implications for WTO rules: Richard Kamidza, SEATINI

12:30 - 12:45 Sandwich Break

12:45 - 13:45 Open Discussion

13:45 - 15:15 Session II : Ensuring Coherence in EPAs and the DDA: the treatment of commodities and the erosion of preferences in EPAs and the WTO

Moderator: Ambassador Samuel Amehou, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Benin to the United Nations

In recent times, ACP countries have been concerned about the erosion of their trade preferences, particularly in relation to key commodities, due to the ongoing multilateral trade liberalization process and domestic reform in the EU especially on sugar and bananas. In Article 36 (4) of the Cotonou Agreement, both the ACP and the EU “reaffirm the importance of the Lome commodity protocols” and agree on the need to review them in the context of the EPAs, “in particular as regards their compatibility with WTO rules with a view to safeguarding the benefits derived therefrom, bearing in mind the special legal status of the Sugar Protocol.” Within the context of the WTO, in the “July 2004 package” of modalities WTO Members agreed to address the issue of preference erosion both within non-agriculture market access and agriculture negotiations. What are the coherence issues that arise regarding the treatment of preference erosion of key ACP commodities within both EPA and WTO negotiations? How best can the interest of the ACP be addressed in both fora?

13:45 - 14:20 Panel presentations

  • Reforms in commodities, WTO rulings and perspectives for the ACP: H.E. Edwin Laurent, Permanent Representative to the WTO for St Lucia and Special Envoy to the EU for Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines
  • Making preferences work can work- an alternative framework for tackling the problems of ACP trade capacity and effects of preference erosion: Dr Medicine Masiiwa, Director, Trades and Development Centre, Zimbabwe.

14:20 - 15:15 Open Discussion

15:15 -15:30 Closing remarks

Yvonne Apea, ICTSD

Participants

Participants from Country Missions to the Word Trade Organisation and the United Nations

Madame Tsekoa Teboho, Mission of Lesotho
Mr Eduoard Bizimuremyi, Mission of Rwanda
Mr Umesh Sookmanee, Mission of Mauritius
Ms. Simone Rudder, Mission of Barbados
Mr. Bob Kasper, Mission of the US
Mr Roy Miki Joy, Permanent Delegation of the Pacific Island Forum
Mr Siope Ofa, Permanent Delegation of the Pacific Islands Forum
Mr. Umesh Sookmanee, Permanent Mission of Mauritius
Mr. Marta Gallon, Mission of Colombian
Ms. M. Mesa, Mission of Colombian
Ms. H. Morojele, Mission of Lesotho
Mr. Matthew Wilson, Mission of Barbados
Ms. Lynette Gitonga, Mission of Kenya
Ms. Shelley-Ann Clarke-Hinds, Mission of Trinanda and Tobago
Mr. Gainmore Zanamwe, Mission of Zimbabwe
Mr. Edward Chisanga, Mission of Zambia
Mr. Soustiel Fernando, Mission of Colombia
H.E. Ambassador Amehou, Mission of Benin
H.E. Ambassador Laurent, Permanent Representative to the WTO for St Lucia
Ms. Yolinda Cham, Mission of Fji

Non Governmental Organisations / Think Tanks

Ms Marita Hutjes, Novib/ Oxfam Netherlands
Mr. Niel Joubert, Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa (tralac)
Mr. Stefan Verwer, Both Ends
Ms Liz Dodd, Traidcraft
Bibiane Mbaye Ghamanyi, ENDA Tiers Monde, Senegal
Mr Kato Lambrechts, Christian Aid
Mr Charles Abugre, Christian Aid
Ms Christina Weller, Christian Aid
Mr. Gyeke Tanoh, Third World Network, Africa
Ms. Angela Mulenga, Civil Society Trade Network of Zambia
Mr. Medecine Masiiwa, Trades Centre, Zimbabwe
Mr. Gus Mandigora, tralac
Mr. Calvin Manduna, tralac
Mr. Richard Kamidza, Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI)
Mr Jean Blaylock, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
Ms. Jane Kelsey, Consultant to World Council of Churches (Pacific)

Mr. Matti Hautsalo, Service Centre for Development Cooperation, Finland (KEPA)
Mr. Christophe Bellmann, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
Ms. Yvonne Apea, ICTSD
Mr. Eduardo Escobedo, ICTSD
Mr. Elhadji Diouf, ICTSD
Ms. Hilde Ludt, ICTSD
Mr. Sanoussi Bilal, European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)

International Organisations

Ms Jo-Ann Crawford, Counsellor RTA Section, WTO
Ms. P. Guye, UNCTAD
Mr. Taisuke Ito, UNCTAD
Mr. Lucamonge Roffarello, UNDP

Intergovernmental Organisations

Falou Samb, Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation (AITIC)
Mr. Ivan Mbirimi, Commonwealth Secretariat, UK
Mr. Tiyanjana Mphepo, South Centre

ACP Regional Organisations

Ms. La Celia Prince, Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery
Mr Anthony Gonzales, Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery
Ms. Elliott Paige, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)

Government Institutions

Ms. Dianna Melrose, Department for International Development, UK (DFID)
Mr Peter Stephens, Department of Trade and Industry, UK

Academia

Ms. Virginia Horscroft, Oxford University
Mr. Ousmane Diallo, Institut HEI, Geneva
Ms. M. Williams, Institute of Law and Economics

Media

Mr. Edwin Timmer, Telegraaf (Netherlands)