1 / 20

Bilateral negotiations in the WTO accession process

Bilateral negotiations in the WTO accession process. Presentation by Josip Pervan , Senior Policy Advisor IDEAS Centre, Geneva. The start. ACC/1 : initial offer in response to requests received, or on its own initiative In reality, most countries submit without receiving requests

hadar
Download Presentation

Bilateral negotiations in the WTO accession process

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Bilateral negotiations in the WTO accession process Presentation by JosipPervan, Senior Policy Advisor IDEAS Centre, Geneva

  2. The start • ACC/1: initial offer in response to requests received, or on its own initiative • In reality, most countries submit without receiving requests • At least one (goods/services) is submitted prior to the second working party meeting. • Subsequent offers submitted depending on the requests received.

  3. The process • Multiple revisions necessary • At the beginning revisions tend to be multilateral, later on bilateral • Bilateral revision- multiple selling of the same commitment • Upon conclusion, bilateral protocols are signed • At the end of the process, offers are consolidated into one schedule, which is offered on an MFN basis and verified by all members

  4. „Rules”of negotiations • There is no standard offer – the level of concessions is determined through negotiations • Regional level of concessions plays a role • Members ask for commerciallymeaningful market access including for future products • Each accession sets precedents for future accessions (length of transition periods, use of safeguards, TQRs, etc.)

  5. Internal organization • Inter-ministerial groups at two-levels • Consultative mechanism with the private sector • Working groups for goods and services • Agreeing on sensitivities, red lines • Defining strategy • Adapting as the negotiations progress- elaborating trade offs

  6. 15% bound duty level Goods negotiations • Bound tariffs are the basis for negotiations • Final bound rates close to applied levels • Transition periods accepted for sensitive items • Good arguments needed for protection of tariffs • Flexibility tools: transitional periods, special safeguard (SSG), tariff-rate quotas, specific duties 5% applied duty level 0%

  7. Types of tariffs NAV

  8. Format of the offer 1 Equal annual rate reductions, unless otherwise mentioned. 2 Can be replaced by a headnote “All ODCs are to be bound at zero.”

  9. Services Negotiations • Schedule divided in sectors and modes of supply • Concessions provided in market access and national treatment • Horizontal and sectoral commitments • Final bound commitments go beyond status quo • Flexibilities: transitional periods, MFN exemptions, unbounding

  10. SCHEDULE OF SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS OF COUNTRY X • (1)Cross‑border supply (3)Commercial presence • (2) Consumption abroad (4)Presence of natural persons

  11. Challenges in negotiations • Typical developing country sensitivities: • Professional services • Audio-visual services • Construction services • Distribution services • Educational services • Health services • Movement of Natural Persons • Typical regulatory challenges: • Professional services • Postal/courier services • Telecom services • Banking services • Insurance services • Road transport • Land ownership • Movement of Natural Persons

  12. Results: AG goods

  13. Results: ind. goods

  14. Binding coverage

  15. TRQs, SSGs

  16. Sectoral initiatives

  17. Results: Services • Recent examples (of 160 sub-sectors): • Bulgaria – December 1996 ~ 68 • Kyrgyz Rep. – April 1999 ~105 • Albania – September 2000 ~ 95 • Georgia – June 2000 ~126 • Macedonia – April 2003 ~116 • Cambodia – October 2004 ~ 96 • Nepal – April 2004 ~ 84 • Vietnam – January 2007 ~ 98

  18. Original members vs newcomers

  19. Trends in the accession process • Non- existence of rules makes the process unpredictable • More difficult to acceede as the time goes by • Development status plays a role • Acceeding countries do not have much negotiating leverage • Negotiators must keep in mind the global political and trade importance of their country • Services negotiations- problem of coordination • The problem of conflicting requests by WTO members (EU-USA) • The position of Ukraine and / or other bilateral disputes • The result: negotiations are a time-consuming process !

  20. THANK YOU josip.pervan@ideascentre.ch

More Related