Issues of Interest to LDCs in the WTO Services Negotiations – Series No 3: Emergency Safeguard Mechanism.
The negotiations on Article X on an Emergency Safeguard Mechanism (ESM) of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) were initiated after the establishment of the GATS at the end of the Uruguay Round of negotiations in 1995. (more…)
Some considerations on acceding to the GSTP Agreement and joining the Third Round of GSTP Negotiations
In the São Paulo Declaration of 16 June 2004, developing country Ministers gathered at UNCTAD XI have agreed to launch a Third Round of trade negotiations among participants to the General System of Trade Preferences among Developing Countries (GSTP). (more…)
State of Play in Agriculture Negotiations: Country Groupings’ Positions.
The purpose of the present note is to provide an overview of the position of various countries and group of countries active in the WTO agriculture negotiations with respect to critical issues under discussion. (more…)
Issues of Interest to LDCs in the WTO Services Negotiations – Series No. 2: Telecommunications Services.
The telecommunications sector is of crucial importance in every economy. Almost every other sector of an economy depends on telecommunications services in their economic activity. Most businesses today rely to a great extent on data transmission by information and communication technologies for their operations – in other words, functioning without telecommunications services is inconceivable for most business operations. (more…)
Dependency of Developing Countries on Non-Agricultural Commodities: Characteristics and Challenges.
Information on non-agricultural commodities is not as widely available as for agricultural commodities. The purpose of this paper is to identify, in contrast to agricultural commodities, what is the extent of dependency of developing countries on non-agricultural commodities, what are the main characteristics of this dependency, which developing countries are most dependent on this type of commodities and what are the challenges they face in the trade arena and from a wider developmental view. (more…)
GATS Mode 4 Negotiations and Low Skilled Workers.
This note considers the interest of least developed country (LDC) Members to participate in the market access negotiations of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The request and offer process of negotiations begins appropriately with the submittal of an initial request. (more…)
Analysis of Actual Liberalisation Versus Quad Members GATS Commitments and Offers: Focus on a) Mode 1 and b) Tourism and Travel Related Services.
This note is focused on two areas: a) mode 1 or cross-border supply of trade in services, and b) the tourism and travel related services sector. The goal of this exercise is to assess whether GATS commitments made by a few of the most developed service economies, i.e. Quad members, can be considered “weak”, below actual levels of liberalisation and occurring outside of the WTO GATS regime. (more…)
Issues of Interest to LDCs in the WTO Services Negotiations – Series No. 1: Tourism and Travel-Related Services.
The specific goal of this primer on the tourism and travel-related services sector (hereinafter referred to as “tourism services”) is to provide LDCs with both basic information pertaining to economic activity of the sector and insights of the GATS negotiations related to the sector. (more…)
Considerations for the Submission of Initial Offers in Light of the Current State of Play of Negotiations.
This note discusses the differing negotiating scenarios for individual Members and aims to present a clearer picture of the near term prospects for market access negotiations. From this, general considerations and options are provided for Members facing pressure to submit initial offers. (more…)
Analysis of Actual Liberalisation versus GATS Commitments of Quad Members: Mode 4 and Health Services.
This note is the first of a series assessing the actual or current level of trade liberalisation in select modes and sectors of the Quad members (Canada, European Communities, Japan and the United States) compared with their General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) commitments in the respective areas. (more…)
European Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) reform in the WTO context.
This note is an attempt to appraise the possible implications of the decisions reached in Europe on 26 June on CAP reform for the agriculture negotiations at the WTO. That is, trying to understand how the policy changes agreed could be translated into the WTO framework and put it in context. (more…)
Proposals on a special safeguard for developing countries in agriculture. (more…)
