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Contents
> Director-General’s letter to journalists
> The Doha Development Agenda
> Agriculture
> Cotton
> Services
> Market access, non-agricultural products
> Intellectual property (TRIPS)
> Trade facilitation
> Rules: ad, scm including fisheries subsidies
> Rules: regional agreements
> Dispute settlement
> Trade and environment
> Small economies
> Trade, debt and finance
> Trade and technology transfer
> Technical cooperation
> Least-developed countries
> Special and differential treatment
> Implementation issues
> Electronic commerce
> Members and accessions
> Members
> Bananas
> Statistics, Textiles and Clothing
> Statistics, Facts and Figures
> Jargon buster, Country groupings
> Jargon buster, An informal guide to ‘WTOspeak’
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The
Doha mandate back to top
At the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001,
ministers agreed to start negotiations to further liberalize trade in non-agricultural
goods. To this end, the Negotiating Group on Market Access (NAMA) was created
at the first meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee, in early 2002.
The
ministers agreed to launch tariff-cutting negotiations on all non-agricultural
products. The aim is “to reduce, or as appropriate eliminate tariffs, including
the reduction or elimination of tariff peaks, high tariffs, and tariff
escalation, as well as non-tariff barriers, in particular on products of
export interest
to developing countries”. The product coverage shall be comprehensive and
without a priori exclusions.
These negotiations shall take fully into account
the special needs and interests of developing and least-developed countries,
and recognize that these countries do not need to match or reciprocate
in full tariff-reduction commitments by other participants.
At the start,
participants
had to reach agreement on how (“modalities”) to conduct the tariff-cutting
exercise. (In the Tokyo Round, the participants used an agreed mathematical
formula to cut tariffs across the board; in the Uruguay Round, participants
negotiated tariff cuts using a variety of methods). The agreed procedures
would include studies and capacity-building measures that would help
least-developed countries participate effectively in the negotiations.
While
eight GATT Rounds have sharply reduced customs duties, certain tariffs
continue to restrict
trade, especially on exports of developing countries — for instance “tariff
peaks”, which are relatively high tariffs, usually on “sensitive” products,
amidst generally low tariff levels.
Another example is “tariff escalation”,
in which higher import duties are applied on semi-processed products
than on raw materials, and higher still
on finished
products. This practice protects domestic processing industries and discourages
the development of processing activity in the countries where raw materials
originate. The original aim of ministers was to conclude NAMA negotiations
by 2005. The
Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, December 2005, will take stock
of progress.
Since then… back to top
The July 2004 “framework”, agreed by the General
Council, contained the initial elements for future work on modalities and
reaffirmed the mandate of the Doha Declaration with some additional clarifications
and guidelines. In this framework, Members recognized that a formula approach
is key to reducing tariffs, and reducing or eliminating tariff peaks, high
tariffs, and tariff escalation, and agreed that the Negotiating Group should
continue its work on a non-linear formula (not all tariff rates are cut by
the same percentage) applied on a line-by-line basis which shall take fully
into account the special needs and interests of developing and least-developed
country participants, including through less than full reciprocity in reduction
commitments.
By September 2005 Members have submitted more than
60 papers as a contribution to the debate. These proposals deal with the “modalities” for
the negotiations, covering tariff reductions, how to deal with non-tariff
barriers, how to give developing countries special and differential treatment,
and the possible effects of the reduction in tariffs on the development
policies of some countries and on their fiscal revenues, etc. The “modalities” include
the criteria to be used to define environmental goods, since the Doha Declaration
includes a mandate to negotiate the reduction of tariffs in this particular
sector of goods, a subject transferred from the Trade and Environment Committee
to this negotiating group.
At the end of July 2005, the chairman of the
Negotiating Group, ambassador Stefan Johannesson of Iceland, submitted
a report to the
General Council in which he reported that there was an impasse on the
formula, although Members were not as far apart and the divergence was not
so much
about the structure as about getting the right balance between ambition
and flexibilities for developing countries.
The formula:
In his latest
assessment of the negotiations, the chairman said he believed that Members
supported
the use of a Swiss Formula (that is, higher tariffs are submitted to
deeper cuts) as the central tariff cutting mechanism for the NAMA negotiations.
However, he also said that under this umbrella of a Swiss formula,
he had
identified two approaches. In general terms, one approach envisages
the use
of a limited number of coefficients to be negotiated and the other
proposes a largely pre-determined coefficient for each Member using its tariff
average as a starting point. Members that have submitted proposals for
a
formula
are Chile, Colombia and Mexico (joint proposal); Norway; United States;
European Communities; Argentina, Brazil and India (joint proposal); Antigua
and Barbuda,
Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (joint proposal); and Pakistan. Sectors:
In
the July 2004 agreement on the framework for establishing modalities,
members recognized that a sectorial tariff component, aiming
at elimination
or harmonization of tariffs in certain sectors, is another key element
in achieving the objectives of the mandate. This sectorial approach
would aim
at products of export interest to developing countries. Some members
have expressed their opinion that the participation in any sectorial
initiative should be voluntary. Work has been ongoing in the following sectors
: Electronics/Electrical
Equipment, Bicycles and Sporting Goods, Chemicals, Fish, Footwear,
Forest Products, Gems and Jewelry, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices
and
Raw
Materials. Special and differential treatment for developing
countries:
There have been
extensive discussions on these provisions and their relationship
with the formula. Most of the points raised were about flexibility for developing
countries — allowing them longer implementation periods for tariff
reductions; and allowing them to keep 5% of tariff lines “unbound” (i.e.
not legally committed in the WTO), provided that these do not exceed
5% of imports.
Least-developed country participants would not be required to undertake
reduction commitments.
But as part of their contribution to this round of negotiations,
they are expected to substantially increase the number of products
whose
maximum tariff rates are legally bound in the WTO. Furthermore, and
as an exemption,
participants
with a binding coverage of non-agricultural tariff lines of a percentage
to be agreed during the negotiation, but proposed to be 35% by the
chairman of the Negotiating Group, would be exempt from making tariff
reductions
through the formula. Instead, members expect them to bind non-agricultural
tariff
lines at a percentage, proposed to be 100% by the chairman, at an
average level that does not exceed the overall average of bound tariffs
for
all developing countries after full implementation of current concessions.
Newly
acceded members:
Members have agreed to the need to further elaborate
on
special provisions for tariff reductions for Newly Acceded Members
in recognition
of the commitments undertaken by them during their accession process.
This
could be undertaken once there is an agreement on the formula. Non-tariff
barriers (NTB's):
NTBs are an integral and equally important part of these
negotiations, and work on this component of the Negotiating
Group's
mandate
has intensified. A considerable amount of time has been spent
identifying and categorizing the notified NTB's, and now the Negotiating
Group
has
entered a phase of examination and negotiation of such NTB's.
Other
elements regarding the formula that have been discussed in the Negotiating
Group
are : product coverage, treatment of Unbound Tariff Lines, conversion
to
ad valorem
equivalents, elimination of low duties, non-reciprocal preferences
and tariff revenue
dependency, environmental goods, etc
At Hong Kong, Ministers
are expected to assess progress in the negotiations. The talks are
scheduled
to
be completed by the end of 2006.
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Other material:
> Market access
> Market access negotiations
> Doha declaration
> Doha declaration
explained
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