Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 11 • 25th March 2009
NAMA Committee Takes up Non-Tariff Barriers
Discuss this articleShare your views with other visitors, and read what they have to say
The WTO committee that deals with industrial goods zeroed in on non-tariff barriers to trade, or NTBs, at its most recent meeting on 19 March. Chief on the agenda was an EU proposal to create a speedier mechanism for resolving disputes over NTBs, which include measures such as import licences, packaging and labelling standards, or complex regulatory requirements.
Paragraph 16 of the Doha Declaration mandates WTO Members to pursue the “reduction or elimination of… non-tariff barriers, in particular on products of export interest to developing countries.”
Versions of the EU proposal have been discussed in the WTO’s Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) committee for almost three years, but the measure has so far failed to win universal backing (see Bridges Weekly, 17 May 2006, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/7541/).
Supporters of the proposal argue that going through the formal channels of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body is expensive and time-consuming, and that the WTO committees that oversee Members’ implementation of their obligations are ineffective at resolving trade spats.
Instead, the EU and its supporters have proposed that quarrelling countries be allowed to call on expert ‘facilitators’ to help them broker a compromise, without delving into whether the NTB in question is permitted by world trade rules. Should this new mechanism fail to produce a mutually satisfactory solution, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) could be used as a last resort, the proponents say.
The proposal has won the support of the African Group, Canada, the Group of Least-Developed Countries, the NAMA-11 group of developing countries, the Developing Country Group, as well as New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan and Switzerland.
But the US, for one, has not been won over; Washington expressed its opposition to the measure at last week’s meeting, saying that such concerns should be handled within regular WTO committees. In past meetings, the US has argued that the new mechanism could undermine the authority of the DSB. Other Members expressed concerns about the confidentiality of the process, what role the facilitator would play, as well as what the cost implications might be.
In other committee business, delegates worked to simplify, explain and merge texts on how to address NTBs in a number of sectors, including electronics, textiles, forestry products and fireworks and lighters. The meeting also saw much discussion and questioning of a US proposal, also backed by Japan and Switzerland, for a ministerial decision on trade in remanufactured goods.
ICTSD reporting.
Add a comment
Enter your details and a comment below, then click Submit Comment. We’ll review and publish the best comments.