WTO Seminar on Cross-Cutting Issues in Regional Trade Agreements

The Secretariat organized a seminar on 25 September to discuss WTO Staff Working Papers on regional trade agreements (RTAs). The papers cover a range of issues covered by RTAs, including market access in goods and services, rules of origin, services rules, anti-dumping and safeguard provisions, trade facilitation, intellectual property, and dispute settlement provisions, and are based on all RTAs notified to the WTO. The objective of the seminar was to present and discuss the main findings of these papers.

Thursday 25 September 2014 — Room W

Programme

09:30-09:45	Welcome and opening remarks Willy Alfaro, Director, Trade Policies Review Division Audio
09:45-11:00	Opening roundtable discussion Moderator: Keith Rockwell, Director Information and External Relations Division, WTO H.E. Mr Gabriel Duque, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the WTO Mr Guillermo Valles, Director Division on International Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities, UNCTAD Mr Michael Mugliston: Special Negotiator, Free Trade Agreement Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia Followed by Q&A from audience Audio
11:00-12:45	Session 1: Market access in goods and services Moderator: H.E. Francisco Pirez Gordillo, Ambassador of Uruguay, Chair of CRTA Jo-Ann Crawford (TPRD) Paper: Market access provisions on trade in goods in regional trade agreements (ERSD-2012-20) Presentation: Market Access Provisions in Trade in Goods in RTAs Maria Donner (TPRD) Paper: Preferential rules of origin In regional trade agreements (ERSD‑2013‑05) Presentation: RTA Systemic and Cross-Cutting Issues Pierre Latrille (TPRD) Paper: Services rules in regional trade agreements: How diverse and how creative as compared to the GATS multilateral rules? (ERSD-2012-19) Presentation: Services rules in RTA : how diverse and how creative as compared to GATS ? Paper: Services Commitments in Preferential Trade Agreements: An Expanded Dataset (ERSD-2011-18) Presentation: Services Commitments in Preferential Trade Agreements: An Expanded Dataset Audio
12:45-14:15	Lunch
14:15-16:30	Session 2: Regulatory issues in RTAs Moderator: Valerie Hughes, Director, Legal Affairs Division, WTO Jean Daniel Rey (TPRD) Paper: Antidumping regional regimes and the multilateral trading system: do regional antidumping regimes make a difference? (ERSD-2012-22) Presentation: Antidumping Regional Regimes and the Multilateral Trading System Jo-Ann Crawford (TPRD) Paper: Mapping of Safeguard Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements (ERSD‑2013-10) Presentation: Safeguard Provisions in RTAs Raymundo Valdes (IPD) Paper: Intellectual property provisions in regional trade agreements (ERSD‑2014-14) Presentation: Intellectual Property Provisions In Regional Trade Agreements Nora Neufeld (MAD) Paper: Trade Facilitation Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements Traits and Trends (ERSD-2014-01) Presentation: TF Provisions in RTAs — Traits and Trends Claude Chase (AB) Paper: Mapping of Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in Regional Trade Agreements — Innovative or Variations on a Theme? (ERSD-2013-07) Presentation: Mapping of Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in Regional Trade Agreements Audio
16:30-17:45	Wrap Up Roundtable Discussion Moderator: Dan Pruzin, Information and External Relations Division, WTO Ben Czapnik, Advisor, Business and Trade Policy Section, International Trade Centre (ITC) Iza Lejarraga, Senior Policy Analyst, OECD Marcus Bartley Johns, Trade and Competitiveness Specialist, World Bank Aileen Kwa, Coordinator, Trade and Development Programme, South Centre Gabrielle Marceau, Counsellor, Legal Affairs Division, WTO Robert Teh, Counsellor, Economic Research and Statistics Division, WTO. Audio
17:45	Closing address by the Director General Audio