The World Trade Organization – WTO –

The World Trade Organization – WTO –. A rules-based, member-driven organization. “Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.” Created in 1995 by 120 nations to supersede and extend the GATT. Now:

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• international trade institution
• income index environmental performance
• domestic supply
• goods
• environmental standards
• implied market access commitments

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The World Trade Organization – WTO –

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1. The World Trade Organization– WTO – • A rules-based, member-driven organization. • “Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.” • Created in 1995 by 120 nations to supersede and extend the GATT. • Now: • 148 member nations (over 97% of world trade). • 32 ‘observer’ countries.
2. Origin: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) • Before GATT: several joint declarations of free-trade ideals—and failed attempts to create an international trade institution. • Under US leadership, the GATT was created in 1947—as a step toward the “ITO.” • GATT: 19 original “contracting parties.” (WTO has now 148 members.) • Regulated trade in goods, only.
3. GATT-Sponsored Trade Liberalization– Negotiating Rounds: The First Seven – RoundPeriodParticipants • Geneva 1947 23 • Annecy 1949 13 • Torquay 1951 38 • Geneva 1956 26 • Dillon 1960-61 26 • Kennedy 1964-67 62 • Tokyo 1973-79 102
4. Average Reduction in US Tariff Rates 1947-85 Index Pre-Geneva Tariff = 100 GATT Negotiating Rounds
5. Uruguay Round—the 8th Round • 123 participating countries. • Most difficult—and most ambitious—among all rounds of negotiation. • Lasted almost 8 years (1986-1994, in effect since 1995): the longest round. • Created the WTO in 1995. • Ultimately, very successful.
6. Uruguay Round—Outcomes • Manufactured goods’ further liberalization: • Cap on developed countries’ average tariff: not higher than 4%. • Overall, tariffs reduced by more than 30%. • Additional tariffs ‘bound.’ • Extended GATT scope to many new areas: • Agriculture. • Textiles. • Services (banking, insurance, telecommunications, transportation etc.): GATS. • Intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trademarks): TRIPS. • Strengthened GATT dispute settlement procedures.
7. Agriculture • Main difficulty. Ultimately, plan to progressively reduce subsidies was approved. Textiles • Plan to progressively reduce and eliminate the current quota system. TRIPS • Agreement to provide enhanced protection to intellectual property.
8. GATS • Extension of GATT rules to services. • Negotiations continued after the conclusion of the Uruguay Round. • Telecommunications (1997-98) • 69 countries (90% of world telecommunications revenues) involved. • Financial Services (1997-99) • 102 countries (95% of trade in banking, insurance and financial information) involved. In both cases, markets became more open to foreign competition and barriers to FDI were reduced.
9. Goods Services Intellectual property Disputes Basic principles GATT GATS TRIPS Dispute settlement Additional details Other goods agreements and annexes Services annexes Market access commitments Countries’ schedules of commitments Countries’ schedules of commitments WTO Current Structure
10. GATT/WTO: Main Objective To provide a legal framework for incorporating the results of negotiations directed toward “reciprocal and mutually advantageous exchange of market access commitments on a non-discriminatory basis.” • Typically, such an outcome is obtained through reductions of tariffs and other barriers to trade.
11. Is free trade an explicit objective of the GATT/WTO? “The WTO does not tell governments how to conduct their trade policies. Rather, the WTO is a ‘member-driven’ organization.” In reality, free trade (or freer trade) depends on what countries are willing to bargain with each other. - NO -
12. GATT/WTO Negotiation Rules • Governments negotiate only if they want and what they want. • Consensus rule: if all agree, agreement is implemented; otherwise, it is not. Bottom line: All countries have a voice.
13. Why is There a Need for Trade Negotiations? • Typically, governments care primarily about the residents of their own country.  Whenever possible, they try to shift the cost of their policies to other countries. • This is especially easy to do with trade policies.
14. “Beggar-thy-Neighbor” A government increases tariffs in a certain sector  local price rises   domestic supply (S) ; domestic demand (D)   import demand (M = D – S) 
15. Non-discrimination Reciprocity The 2 Pillars of GATT/WTO Negotiations Most-Favored-Nation Clause (MFN) Any tariff concession a country gives to another must be extended to all other WTO members. Negotiations are “reciprocal:” the market access obtained must be equivalent to the market access conceded.
16. Can these 2 guidelines deliver an efficient outcome? According to recent, cutting-edge research, “As long as bilateral negotiations abide by MFN and satisfy reciprocity, they can be presumed to produce Pareto improvements across governments. But if either MFN or reciprocity is violated, then this presumption may not be warranted.” - Yes -
17. How can governments enforce an agreement when each individual country has an incentive to disrespect what it had agreed upon? • WTO has no police power to enforce the agreements: • The WTO cannot send any country to ‘jail.’ • The WTO cannot even indirectly force countries to abide by previous agreement. • By suspending loans, for instance, as the IMF can do.  Agreements need to be self-sustainable.
18. How, then, can cooperation be achieved? Repeated interaction + Threat of retaliation • WTO members have agreed to confer to the WTO the right to set the rules governing retaliation, discipline it and keep it within bounds.
19. WTO Dispute Settlement—the Process • If a member believes their rights under the agreements are being infringed, it should bring the case to the WTO—instead of acting unilaterally. • Initially, governments try to settle their differences through consultation. • If the case is not settled during the consultation period, a stage-by-stage procedure is initiated. • A panel of independent experts, judging each case based on interpretations of the agreements and individual countries’ commitments, makes the final ruling. • Governments can appeal after the final ruling.
20. WTO Dispute Settlement:Improvements Over Older System • Details the procedures and the timetable to be followed in resolving disputes. • Rulings harder to block. • Rulings are automatically adopted unless there is a consensus to reject a ruling. • Stricter limits for the length of time a case should take to be settled. • In normal cases, settlement should take less than a year; if the case is appealed, less than 15 months.
21. WTO Dispute Settlement—the Outcomes • From 1995 to 2004, 324 disputes were taken to the WTO. [GATT (1947-94 ): around 300.] • About 15% of the cases are resolved ‘out of court.’ • Most others resolved after formal dispute resolution procedures were adopted. • Typically, involved parties have abided by the WTO recommendations.
22. Labor and Environmental Standards ‘Free trade is not compatible with reasonable labor standards and environment protection.’ • In reality, international trade affects labor and environmental regulations only indirectly. • And the effects have been, by all accounts, positive. • Typically, as income grows, demand for tighter standards increases; since trade normally increases income, …
23. Germany 7.0 Finland Netherlands Ireland Bulgaria Jamaica 6.5 Korea China S.Africa India Trinidad Environmental Performance Index Tunisia 6.0 Kenya Nigeria Egypt Malawi Thailand Tanzania Bangladesh 5.5 Bhutan Ethiopia 5.0 6 7 8 9 10 11 Income Index Environmental Performance and Income
24. 2 Standard Critiques of the Implications of the WTO Policies “Regulatory-Chill” “Race-to-the-Bottom”
25. Suppose that a government has agreed to hold its tariffs low as a result of a WTO negotiation.
26. The “Race-to-the-Bottom” Problem The government faces pressure from import-competing interests to offer additional protection from imports. • If its WTO commitments prevent the government from responding with a tariff increase, then it might instead choose to relax a labor or an environmental standard. Race to the bottom
27. The “Regulatory-Chill” Problem The government faces pressure from labor (environment) interests to introduce new and more stringent standards. • Those standards would enhance workplace safety while raising the costs of production of import-competing firms  Import-competing firms lobby for enhanced protection. • If WTO commitments prevent the government from raising its tariffs to offset the effects of the tighter standards on its firms, then the government might hesitate to introduce them. Regulatory chill
28. Are the “Race-to-the-Bottom” and the “Regulatory-Chill” Problems Inevitable? If property rights over negotiated market access levels were sufficiently complete, none of these problems would arise. Not really:
29. How can these property rights be completed? A Simple Rule: • Once a government has agreed to lower its tariffs in a WTO negotiation: • It should not be permitted to take subsequent unilateral policy actions that undercut its implied market access commitments; but • It should be otherwise allowed to configure its unilateral policies in anyway it desires. • Existing GATT/WTO principles are not that far away from approximating this simple rule.
30. The “Race-to-the-Bottom” Case • The government should not be permitted to offer protection to its import-competing industry by weakening its standards. • Instead, if it desires to provide additional protection from imports, it should be required to renegotiate with its trading partners to select higher tariff levels. • In principle, “non-violation” nullification-or-impairment complaints can guide governments toward such renegotiations—thereby preventing a race to the bottom.
31. The “Regulatory-Chill” Case • The government should be allowed to raise its tariff as it tightens its standards. • However, its tariff increase can do no more than offset the competitive effect of the tighter standards. • In principle, renegotiations could involve a commitment to higher standards as “compensation” for tariffs bound at higher levels—and thereby prevent a regulatory chill.
32. National Treatment • After entering in a country, imported and locally-produced goods (as well as services, trademarks, copyrights and patents) must be treated equally.
33. Anti-Dumping Provisions Dumping: A company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market. • The WTO “allows governments to act against dumping where there is genuine injury to the competing domestic industry.” • Government has to: • show that dumping has taken place; • calculate the extent of dumping; and • show that the dumping is causing injury. • Recently, have gained increased popularity.
34. Exceptions to MFN Developing nations GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) Free Trade Areas Customs Unions
35. Forms of Economic Integration • Free Trade Area (FTA) • Free trade among members. • Each country has independent trade policies toward nonmembers. • Customs Union (CU) • FTA + common external trade policy. • Common Market • CU + free mobility of factors of production. • Economic Union • Common Market + harmonization of other—monetary, fiscal—policies.
36. Preferential trade agreements • They are, by nature, discriminatory: member countries’ concessions to each other are not extended to third parties. • Although PTAs are allowed by the WTO, the WTO has some guidelines governing the formation of PTAs.
37. WTO’s Guidelines for PTAs: • Bloc members cannot increase external trade barriers against imports from third countries. * Provision aimed at securing interests of WTO members not participating in the PTA.* • Bloc should eliminate—or “reduce substantially”—its internal trade barriers in a “reasonable” period of time. * Provision aimed at avoiding partial PTAs—which would lead to the practical elimination of the MFN rule.*
38. PTAs: The Facts • Over 200 regional trade arrangements are currently in force. • Nearly all WTO members participate in at least one regional free trade agreement. • Others to come – FTAA …

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