Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 40 • 18th November 2009
New ‘Consolidated Text’ on Trade Facilitation Expected Soon
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A new, consolidated text for the WTO negotiations on trade facilitation should be released to delegates later this month, trade sources said last week.
The new rules under negotiation aim to simplify customs procedures, cut red tape, reduce corruption, and enhance developing countries’ capacity to engage in international trade. The talks could have a significant impact: the World Bank estimates that increased efficiency in ports and airports could cut the costs of conducting trade by 50 percent and boost global trade in manufacturing by up to US$ 377 billion each year.
Over the course of last week’s meetings, delegates in the WTO’s negotiating group on trade facilitation finished their review of Article VIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which covers trade-related fees and formalities. During meetings in October, members reached agreement on draft language for GATT Article V (the freedom of transit for goods from other member states) and Article X (transparency in the regulation and administration of trade regulations).
But sources stressed that the new document will not be a ‘chair’s text’ - delegates’ term for a document that presents a single, unified view of how members should find consensus in the negotiations. Instead, the new draft will contain - in brackets to indicate lack of consensus - all of the positions that members have put forward, even those that are contradictory. The new consolidated text will serve as the basis for negotiations when the talks on trade facilitation pick back up during the second week of February 2010.
The forthcoming draft is a spot of good news at WTO headquarters, where most negotiating groups have been spinning their wheels in recent weeks, producing few concrete results. But not so for the trade facilitation talks, which “always have a different momentum,” one delegate said.
Despite the progress, sources say there is still plenty of room for disagreement. Many developing countries want to see guarantees of significant levels of technical assistance and capacity building (TACB in delegate-speak) and special and differential treatment (S&DT) before they offer up their own commitments in the negotiations. But some rich countries insist that they will only begin negotiating such ‘flexibilities’ for developing-country members once they see what those countries can put on the table in other areas of the talks. The discussions on goods in transit could also prove difficult for negotiators to navigate, largely due to disagreement over how oil and gas pipelines should be treated.
ICTSD reporting.
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