The Future of the World Trade Organization

The continued difficulties of the World Trade Organization to achieve further multilateral trade liberalization in the Doha Round negotiations have raised questions about its continued relevance. This paper firstly identifies and assesses the key developments in the Doha Round that have contributed to the present stalemate. Secondly, it presents several options that the organization could consider for defining its future work program, given the new realities of global economic engagement, especially the emergence of global production networks. Most importantly, the paper assesses the possibility of including new disciplines covering areas that can help the growth of these drivers of global economic integration. Such an initiative could include three sets of issue: trade facilitation measures, an equitable investment regime, and effective disciplines for curbing non-tariff barriers

Globalisation and the World Trade Organization

In its latest annual report, of which this is an extract, the Productivity Commission responds to current misconceptions about globalisation and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Commission notes that, among other trends, there has been a five-fold increase in average per capita income over the 20th Century. And, contrary to a widespread perception about growing inequality, the ratio of the average income of people living in the richest fifth and poorest fifth of the world narrowed over the 1990s.annual report - globalisation - WTO - child labour - environmental standards - global economy

Regulatory cooperation, aid for trade and the general agreement on trade in services

This paper discusses what could be done to expand services trade and investment through a multilateral agreement in the World Trade Organization. A distinction is made between market access liberalization and the regulatory preconditions for benefiting from market opening. The authors argue that prospects for multilateral services liberalization would be enhanced by making national treatment the objective of World Trade Organization services negotiations, thereby clarifying the scope of World Trade Organization commitments for regulators. Moreover, liberalization by smaller and poorer members of the World Trade Organization would be facilitated by complementary actions to strengthen regulatory capacity. If pursued as part of the operationalization of the World Trade Organization's 2006 Aid for Trade taskforce report, the World Trade Organization could become more relevant in promoting not just services liberalization but, more importantly, domestic reforms of services policies.Emerging Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Trade and Services,Free Trade,Banks&Banking Reform

Russian trade and foreign direct investment policy at the crossroads

This paper summarizes the estimates of what Russia will get from World Trade Organization accession and why. A key finding is the estimate that Russia will gain about $53 billion per year in the medium term from World Trade Organization accession and$177 billion per year in the long term, due largely to its own commitments to reform its own business services sectors. The paper summarizes the principal reform commitments that Russia has undertaken as part of its World Trade Organization accession negotiations, and compares them with those of other countries that have acceded to the World Trade Organization. It finds that the Russian commitments represent a liberal offer to the members of the World Trade Organization for admission, but they are typical of other transition countries that have acceded to the World Trade Organization. The authors discuss the outstanding issues in the Russian World Trade Organizaiton accession negotiations, and explain why Russian accession will result in the elimination of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment against Russia. They discuss Russian policies to attract foreign direct investment, including an assessment of the impact of the 2008 law on strategic sectors and the increased role of the state in the economy. Finally, the authors assess the importance of Russian accession to Russia and to the international trading community, and suggestions for most efficiently meeting the government’s diversification objective.Economic Theory&Research,World Trade Organization,Emerging Markets,Debt Markets,Free Trade

Everything you always wanted to know about wto accession (but were afraid to ask)

In this paper, the authors explore the complex, long, and unique process of accession to the World Trade Organization, with its intertwined economic, legal, and political dimensions. Referring to country case studies and sector-specific issues, the paper organizes some of the current reflections on the topic around three main themes. First, it explores the rationale of accession to the World Trade Organization: Why would new members join the WTO? And why would incumbent members let new members in? Second, it analyzes the World Trade Organization accession process in detail: What are the main characteristics and challenges of the accession process? Has it evolved over time, and how? Third, the paper looks at the implementation of World Trade Organization accession deals: Is accession the end or the beginning of the story? What are the implications for the participating countries and the multilateral trading system?World Trade Organization,Economic Theory&Research,Trade and Services,Trade Law,Debt Markets

Ecological Labelling and the World Trade Organization

Ökologische Kennzeichen gehören zu den marktorientierten Instrumenten der Umweltpolitik und finden international zunehmend Anwendung. Sie enthalten Kriterien über die Herstellungsweise von Produkten, welche bei einer Anwendung auf ausländische Produkte zu Konflikten mit Exportländern führen können. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, worin die Probleme von freiwilligen Kennzeichnungsprogrammen im internationalen Handel liegen. Im Mittelpunkt steht der Vorschlag der Europäischen Kommission, die derzeitige Stellung der ökologischen Kennzeichen gegenüber dem Regelwerk der WTO in einer neuen WTO-Verhandlungsrunde zu klären. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie die in Kennzeichnungsprogrammen gesetzten Standards über Produktionsprozesse zu WTO-Regeln im Verhältnis stehen. Um künftig Konflikte aufgrund von ökologischen Kennzeichen zu vermeiden, sollten die Kennzeichnungsorganisationen bei der Festlegung von Kriterien miteinander international kooperieren und darüber hinaus sollte ein Austausch zwischen der WTO und diesen Organisationen erfolgen. Ecological labels are a market-oriented environmental policy instrument which is applied in a rising number of countries. Products have to meet several criteria in order to qualify for a label. Criteria on production processes of goods can potentially conflict with international trade rules. This article focuses on the current relationship between ecological labels and the WTO legal system. The European Union suggested that this relationship should be more clearly identified and thus be negotiated during a new round of WTO trade talks. We discuss the EU approach and argue that standards on processes and production methods used in eco-labelling schemes are not part of the current WTO legal regime. There is no need, however, to amend the WTO text to comprise eco-labels. Rather, there should be more international co-ordination of standards used in eco-labelling programmes and more cooperation between labelling initiatives and WTO institutions.Ecological Labelling, World Trade Organization, International Environmental Policy, International Trade

Kepentingan Ekonomi Politik Rusia Bergabung Dalam World Trade Organization (WTO) Tahun 2008-2012

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia had begun some major transformation in its political and economic structure. One of the biggest change in the transformation was the effort of Russian accesion into the World Trade Organization. Overview of Russian energy policy in view of it‟s WTO accession. This study used qualitative research methods that the source data is taken from books, journals, newspapers, internet, and previous research has relevant data with the title.Perspectives and levels of analysis used in this study is that the state and NGO as the main actor. By using the concept national interest and theory of theory of International cooperation, will describe the direction of the object of analysis. This study will explain the factors that led the Russia accession in WTO. The transition from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation reinforced the influence of energy resources on Russia‟s economic growth. Regional economic integration and WTO accession have been treated as complementary strategies by the Russian government since the early 2000s. The emergence of Eurasian Economic Community (EurasEC) has created challenges for Russia‟s integration into the world economy given Gazprom‟s market dominance in the Russian economy. Reforming Gazprom‟s pricing system requires both domestic political will and external incentives that will compensate for price reductions in International markets

Pengaruh Kebijakan Agreement on Agriculture (Aoa) Oleh World Trade Organization (WTO) Terhadap Kenaikan Impor Kopi Indonesia Tahun 2012

This research describes and proves the influence of policy AgreementOn Agriculture (AoA) by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for theIndonesian coffee. AoA policy is a policy of international trade in agricultureby WTO.This research uses perspective of pluralism. Pluralist assumes that stateis not unitary actor. This study also uses international trade and internationalorganizations theory.Agreement On Agriculture (AoA) is an international treaty on trade inagriculture in the WTO context. AoA since January 1st, 1995 generally is anagreement to build a trading system that is fair and market-orientedagricultural commodities in particular. AoA commitment is based on threepillars, market access, domestic support and export subsidies. Indonesia hasjoined the WTO since 1995, therefore Indonesia is obliged to follow all therules contained in the WTO, including commitments in the AoA. This studyproves that the AoA policy gave negative impact for Indonesian agriculturalcommodities, especially coffee with increasing import coffee to Indonesia in2012.Key Words: World Trade Organization (WTO), Agreement On Agriculture (AoA),Liberalitation Of Agriculture, Coffea, Indonesia