WTO as a forum for trade negotiations

Although the Uruguay Round package covered a lot of areas of trade and achieved great amount of liberalization of international trade, not everything was agreed. There has been room for further negotiations of rules in different areas and further liberalization in trade in goods, services and intellectual property. The evaluation and modernization of the way of life and challenges of new millennium have also been calling for novelties in various fields. Therefore, the multilateral trade negotiations have never stopped since the establishment of WTO till today and most probably will not stop in the future. 

Concluded negotiations

Some of the big achievements of the last years will be described below. 

Annexes to the General Agreement on Trade in Services

In services negotiations mandated by the General Agreement on Trade in Services ("GATS"), further market access commitments for specific services and service providers were agreed. Thus, in 1995 the negotiations on the movement of natural persons reached a conclusion. In 1997 talks on two important service sectors as financial services and basic telecommunications services were concluded. All three decisions became annexes to the GATS. 

Information Technology Agreement

The Information Technology Agreement ("ITA") was concluded at the Singapore Ministerial Conference in 1996 to eliminate tariff duties on technology products. The ITA requires its participants to eliminate customs duties to zero for all products included in the Agreement. It is the first and most significant tariff liberalization in the WTO after the conclusion of Uruguay Round.

82 countries representing about 97% of world trade in IT products have joined the original ITA. Thanks to this Agreement, trade in technology products currently accounts for around 10% of global goods exports. The ITA covers a large number of high technology products, such as computers, software, and parts and accessories of these products.

In 2015, the expansion of the original ITA was concluded by more than 50 Members. After the expansion, the Agreement applies to 201 additional products, covering trade worth in excess of USD 1.3 trillion. 

Revised Government Procurement Agreement

The Agreement on Government Procurement ("GPA") is a plurilateral agreement with 19 parties covering 47 WTO members. The renegotiation of the Agreement started in 1996 and was concluded in 2011, with the new text of Agreement entering in force in 2014. The revised text upgraded and restructured the old agreement, while putting more emphasis on the importance of transparency and avoidance of corrupt practices and clearly underlying principles of fairness, due process and equal treatment in government procurement. The GPA provides access to procurement markets estimated at USD 1.7 trillion annually. With the expected joining of countries such as Australia, China and Russia, the value should increase significantly.

Amendment to Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement)

In the beginning of 2017, the Amendment to the TRIPS Agreement on public health took effect after the ratification of the Protocol of Amendment by two thirds of the WTO membership. The Amendment makes it easier the grant of compulsory licenses for poorer countries to import cheaper generic medicines if they are unable to manufacture the medicines themselves. It was adopted to make sure that TRIPS Agreement does not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health. 

Trade Facilitation Agreement

The Trade Facilitation Agreement ("TFA") is the first and only multilateral agreement concluded since the establishment of the WTO. The TFA is about simplification and harmonization of customs, export and import processes. It aims at cutting the “red tape” and making trade easier for everyone. According to studies, full implementation of the Agreement could reduce trade costs by approximately 14.3% and boost global trade by up to USD 1 trillion per year.

It has new features and structure that was not observed in previous agreements. It maintains different categories of commitments written into it in accordance with the development level and development needs of the member countries. A Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility has been established to build capacity of developing and least-developed countries to ensure that they can implement and benefit from the TFA. 

(Source: Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility)

For more information on this Agreement, click on the image below which opens the page of the site dedicated to explaining the TFA in detail:

Ongoing negotiations

Doha Round

The Doha Round is the latest round of negotiations to achieve lowering trade barriers and revising trade rules. Its fundamental objective is to improve the trading prospects of developing countries and, therefore, it is also known as the "Doha Development Round". 

The round was launched with the Doha Ministerial Declaration adopted in the 4th Ministerial (2001). The Declaration defined the broad objectives and areas where there was a need for negotiations. Since then, the negotiations have progressed in stages; each stage has narrowed down differences through interim agreements representing what has been achieved so far. Everyone involved in the negotiations has to be persuaded (consensus rule) and everything at the negotiating table has to be agreed on (“Single Undertaking”) for Doha Round Negotiations to finish successfully. 

Besides the implementation-related problems of developing countries addressed in the Round, its Work Programme covers negotiations in 20 important subjects. These subjects are, among others, the following: 

The main goals of negotiations in some of these broad areas can be summed up as follows:

Clarification and Improvement of the Dispute Settlement Understanding

The WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism has been a great success by providing security and predictability to the world trade system and facilitating prompt settlement of trade disputes. However, there has been a need to improve and clarify some provisions on dispute settlement which in practice caused problems and confusion. The review of the Dispute Settlement Understanding started since the establishment of the WTO. In 2001 it entered under the umbrella of the Doha Round negotiations. However, it is not a part of Doha Development Agenda’s ("DDA") single undertaking and also not subject to DDA’s conclusion. The main issues in the negotiations are the following:

Negotiations of Agreement on Environmental Goods 

Plurilateral negotiations on the Environmental Goods Agreement ("EGA") were launched in 2014 to eliminate tariffs on a number of key environment-related products, such as wind turbines and solar panels. Elimination of tariffs would cut costs and encourage the use of environment-friendly goods, and thus contribute to the fight against climate change. It would bring the advantage of new trade opportunities while promoting clean, efficient energy use, lower carbon emissions and pollution. As of June 2018, the number of negotiating parties is 18, counting the EU as one party. As is the case with the Information Technology Agreement, should the EGA be concluded, the benefits of this agreement would be extended to all WTO members.

Talks on fisheries subsidies

Negotiations on subsidies for fisheries have been part of the Doha Agenda since 2001. The fact that overfishing has led to the collapse and decline of numerous valuable fish species raised special concerns about fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing. To prevent further harm, there have been calls for prohibition of subsidies or introduction of special rules for fisheries subsidies. Approaches differ on the subject, thus making it difficult to reach an agreement. However, in Buenos Aires at 11th Ministerial Conference, Ministers decided on a work programme to conclude the negotiations on fisheries by the 2019 WTO Ministerial Conference.