Posts tagged…Wto
Trade ‘imbalances’ are misleading
Mon, Jul 12 2010Alexandro Jara, the Deputy Director-General of WTO
"[R]elying on conventional trade statistics gives a distorted picture of trade imbalances between countries. As we saw when looking at the Chinese content of the iPad, what counts is not the imbalances as measured by gross values of exports and imports, but how much valued added is embedded in these flows.
The WTO estimate, based on IDE-Jetro…
Read more…ACTA is an attack on the WTO
Wed, Jun 16 2010India has complained in the recent TRIPS council that the ACTA provisions modify the balance of rights and obligations established by a multilateral agreement (TRIPS) covering the same domain. The secret negotiation of this plurilateral agreement by a cabal that included Australia is an attack on that balance and hence on one of the pillars of WTO.
"Countries excluded from the ACTA process have…
Positions diverge on Doha negotiations
Thu, May 27 2010Another cold shower for WTO: last week's attempt in Geneva to sketch out some 'common ground' failed. National negotiating teams were said to be shocked (yes, 'shocked') by the size of the gaps between national positions.
"... nine years into the multilateral trade talks, it remains unclear whether the inviolable ‘red lines’ of prominent WTO members overlap enough to make a Doha Round agreement…
Schubert and the GATT
Thu, Apr 15 2010From a 1984 speech to the Confederation of British Industry by Hugh Corbet, then Director of the London-based Trade Policy Research Centre.
The situation* puts one in mind of the report prepared by a well-known firm of management consultants commissioned to advise on the commercial difficulties of a famous symphony orchestra. Part of the report that was prepared dealt with a concert performance…
Let’s end WTO’s Doha agony
Thu, Apr 01 2010Just in … some old news from Geneva:
"The WTO's week-long "stocktaking" of the Doha Round trade talks ended on Friday with a whimper, not a bang. The much-touted goal of concluding the negotiations toward a global trade deal before the end of 2010 - an objective laid out by heads of state last year - was quietly set aside, as officials acknowledged that political hurdles continue to block…
The limits of WTO litigation
Sat, Mar 27 2010Good sense from a former Chair of the WTO Appellate Body.
"It is in the best interest of both countries to continue negotiating on the currency issue rather than resorting to litigation at the WTO. On this issue especially, litigation should be the last resort." Extract from James Bacchus in the WSJ
Alhougth I'm sure a lot of trade law geeks like me would like to see Article XV litigated,…
Rotten ideas about the renminbi
Thu, Mar 18 2010The prospect of a U.S.-China clash over currency controls next month when the U.S. Treasury Secretary is supposed to pronounce on China's 'currency manipulation' has prompted hyperbolic fears (Martin Wolf, in the FT says he "wonders whether the open global economy is going to survive..."!) and at least two feeble plans.
One is from the IMF, which wants a new mandate—although it admits that's not…
Trade-war not likely
Mon, Mar 15 2010Precisely
"Taking a legal case over exchange rate misalignments to the WTO would probably fail, and take years in any case. The only real route left is to unilaterally slap tariffs on Chinese imports to compensate for alleged currency undervaluation. That would be a nuclear option that really could spark the destruction of the postwar world trading system, and it doesn’t look like the US is…
EU ramps up farm subsidies
Thu, Feb 11 2010
Yow!
"The latest official notification to the WTO shows that total EU support levels have returned to levels not seen since the previous decade, with €90.7 billion of support being reported to the global trade body for 2006/2007 - up from €75.6 billion in 2002, when support was at its lowest in the last fifteen years." Extract from ICTSDSo-called 'Green' box subsidies were growing dramatically…
Are the BRICS ready to lead?
Wed, Jan 20 2010
Reflecting on the greater influence of the BRICS, recently, in global forums, the always-interesting Alan Beattie asks:
"Is this a pivot point such as the second world war, where the confident, innovative US muscled aside the weakened, debt-laden economies of Europe and remade the global financial architecture? " Extract from FT.com
His guess? "No, not yet". He points out the BRICS are…
Elaborating the Ag. travesty
Thu, Jan 14 2010It is difficult to believe that the complex, weak, confusing, rent-preserving, ponderous white-elephant being proposed for an agreement on agriculture in the WTO Doha negotiations could be more bloated or further compromised…but that's exactly what seems to be happening.
According to a report* from ITCSD, developing countries and the EU want to further slow the pace of change where opening…
Lamy’s assessment of Copenhagen
Thu, Jan 14 2010It's called whistling in the wind.
"The outcome of the conference in Copenhagen represents a step forward. The Kyoto Protocol addresses about 30% of global carbon emissions. In contrast, the framework accord hammered out in Copenhagen last week may encompass the majority of world emissions. " Extract from WTO | 2009 News items - Lamy praises Copenhagen efforts, calls for more to be done
The…