WTO Agrees Transparency Measure On Regional Trade Pacts

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

13 July 2006

World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy, on 10 July 2006, welcomed the Negotiating Group on Rules' formal approval of a new WTO transparency mechanism for all regional trade agreements (RTAs).

Under the new mechanism, WTO members participating in new negotiations aimed at the conclusion of an RTA shall 'endeavour to so inform the WTO'.

Members who are parties to a newly signed RTA shall convey to the WTO, in so far as and when it is publicly available, information on the RTA, including its official name, scope and date of signature, any foreseen timetable for its entry into force or provisional application, relevant contact points and/or website addresses, and any other relevant unrestricted information.

This information will be forwarded to the WTO Secretariat, which will post it on the WTO website and will periodically provide Members with a synopsis of the communications received.

Members will also provide the full text of the RTA (or those parts they have decided to apply) and any related schedules, annexes and protocols, in one of the WTO official languages; if available, these shall also be submitted in an electronically exploitable format. Reference to related official Internet links shall also be supplied.

Said Mr Lamy: “This decision will help break the current logjam in the WTO on regional trade agreements. This is an important step towards ensuring that regional trade agreements become building blocks, not stumbling blocks to world trade. It is important to note as well that this breakthrough comes at a critical juncture in our broader Doha round negotiations. Hopefully this decision is a good omen for much needed progress in other areas of the talks, such as agriculture and industrial goods trade, where agreement is urgently needed.”

The transparency mechanism is to be implemented on a provisional basis. Members are to review, and if necessary modify, the decision, and replace it by a permanent mechanism adopted as part of the overall results of the Doha Round.

The Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Rules, Ambassador Guillermo Valles Galmés (Uruguay), said the decision is “an early contribution to the Doha Round”. He commended the “constructive engagement” of all delegations in the negotiations.

RTAs, which includes bilateral free trade agreements between countries that are not in the same region, have become so widespread that all but one WTO member are now parties to one or more of them. It is estimated that more than half of world trade is now conducted under RTAs. Some 197 such agreements in force have been notified to the GATT/WTO.

A Committee on RTAs in 1996 replaced separate working parties that have examined these agreements since the GATT. Differences between members on how to interpret the criteria for assessing the consistency of RTAs with WTO rules have created a lengthening backlog of uncompleted reports in the Committee. In fact, consensus on WTO consistency has been reached in only one case so far: the customs union between the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic after the break up of Czechoslovakia.

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