Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 10 • 20th March 2003
Goods Council Debates Trade Facilitation
The Council for Trade in Goods, meeting from 12-13 March, spent much of its time on the issue of trade facilitation. Members also focused on the review of the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs), and named the Council’s subsidiary body chairs. Ambassador Milan Hovorka (Czech Republic) chaired the meeting.
On trade facilitation, the US supported the launch of negotiations after the WTO Ministerial meeting in Cancun in September, and said this "should not be foreseen as a complex undertaking". Trade facilitation — which refers to non-economic measures, such as cooperation on technical standards and customs matters, aimed at promoting international trade through smoothing its flow — is one of the four so-called ‘Singapore issues,’ along with investment, competition policy and transparency in government procurement, for which a WTO work programme was set up in 1996. In a paper circulated shortly before the meeting (G/C/W/451, searchable at http://docsonline.wto.org), the US outlined a three-point approach to special and differential treatment on trade facilitation, covering transitional periods, technical assistance review and a coordination mechanism, and enforcement of commitments. The proposal contained the highly controversial notion of "graduation" among developing countries, as it argued that "rather than treating the matter of transitional periods as involving a blanket ‘one-size-fits-all,’ more comprehensive and detailed transitional periods should be utilised, and integrated into the matter of technical assistance efforts".
Canada presented an overview paper laying out how trade facilitation could be advanced through the development of appropriate WTO commitments (G/C/W/448). New Zealand provided an overview of its experiences at the domestic level, including an example of how its shift to computer systems had reduced customs clearance processing times from ten days to an average of 12 minutes. The EU outlined its technical assistance to developing countries in the area of trade facilitation.
According to trade sources, a number of (mainly developed) WTO Members supported advancing trade facilitation after the Cancun meeting. However, some developing countries continued to question the need to establish new commitments in this area, which would be subject to WTO dispute settlement.
The 1996 Singapore Ministerial Declaration directed the Council for Trade in Goods to "undertake exploratory and analytical work…on the simplification of trade procedures in order to assess the scope for WTO rules in this area". Para. 27 of the Doha Declaration provides that until the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference, the Council for Trade in Goods "shall review and as appropriate clarify and improve relevant aspects of Articles V (Freedom of Transit), VIII (Fees and Formalities Connected with Importation and Exportation) and X (Publication and Administration of Trade Regulations) of the GATT 1994 and identify the trade facilitation needs and priorities of Members, in particular developing and least-developed countries".
No movement on TRIMs
The Council continued its review of TRIMs, focusing on an earlier proposal by Brazil and India, (G/C/W/428), which seeks to re-open spaces for developing countries to use certain trade-related investment measures in their development policies. This item was last discussed in late November 2002 (see BRIDGES Weekly, 12 December 2002), and had been made in the context of the mandated review of the TRIMs Agreement, as referred to in tiret 40 of the Doha Decision on Implementation. The proposal was supported by Colombia and Pakistan, while Canada, the EU and Japan said they remained unconvinced about the need to amend the Agreement. The US stressed that the proposal goes beyond the mandate of the Council for Trade in Goods. The issue remains a standing agenda item, and will be further discussed at future meetings.
New subsidiary body chairs elected
On the subject of regional trade agreements, delegates agreed to forward the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Costa Rica and the Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Singapore to the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements for examination. The Council also agreed on new chairs for 2003 for its subsidiary bodies. These include: Magdi Farahat (Egypt), Committee on Agriculture; Ivan Lee (Hong Kong), Committee on Customs Valuation; David Evans (New Zealand), Committee on Anti-Dumping; Philippa Davies (Jamaica), Committee on Import Licensing; Jo Lomas (United Kingdom), Committee on Market Access; Syed Habib Ahmed (Pakistan), Committee on Rules of Origin; Pornchai Danvivathana (Thailand), Committee on Safeguards; Paul Martin (Canada), Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures; Olga Lucia Lozano (Colombia), Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures; Juan Antonio Dorantes Sanchez (Mexico), Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade; and Sivaramen Palayathan (Mauritius), Committee on TRIMs.
The next meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods will be held on 2-3 June.
ICTSD Reporting; "U.S. Rejects Facilitation Exemptions For Developing Countries from WTO Pacts," WTO REPORTER, 13 March 2003.