PAPDAAs Ministers of the G90 group gather in Guyana June 3rd -4th 2004, for a forum intended ‘to adopt a common strategy’ for the contentious WTO negotiations, NGOs in the Caribbean are urging the Ministers to remain steadfast in their opposition to the current ‘agenda’ within the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to ensure that development issues become a priority in the negotiations.
As the pressure mounts to meet the July deadline for framework agreements in the (...)
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G90 must ensure that development becomes priority in WTO negotiations
15 novembre 2005, par Administrateur -
G20 of developing countries : Passing phenomenon of here to stay ?
15 novembre 2005, par AdministrateurSINCE its establishment on August 20 of last year the G20 has awakened a lot of interest and raised all sorts of expectations in many quarters, some positive, others less so. Although the Group is very recent perhaps a little history, concentrating on the circumstances that surrounded its creation, can contribute to clarify its nature and purpose and help to understand its future role.
The G20 was established in the final stages of the preparation of the WTO Cancun Ministerial. Its agenda (...) -
G20, the developing country coalition
15 novembre 2005, par AdministrateurIN THIS ISSUE of Focus on Trade we look at the G20, the developing country coalition that threw a sizeable spanner in the works during last year’s WTO ministerial. Although their role as a potential counterpower to the US and the EU is welcome, their negotiating position in the WTO is riddled with contradictions. How does the G20 propose to reconcile market access and agricultural liberalisation in the framework of the WTO with their stated intention to protect small producers and (...)
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REFORMING THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION
15 novembre 2005, par AdministrateurFifty years of trade liberalisation, under the aegis of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), have led to unprecedented increases in world output and greater economic integration. These global gains, however, have not resulted in sustained increases in income per head in all countries. The theory of free trade predicts these gains but as well points to the inevitability of losers in the process : that, under certain circumstances, some factors of production and their owners will not be favoured by comparative advantage-based trade and exchange. Political and social opposition to these losses, including sectoral dislocation and greater unemployment, have grown as world trade has grown, and have been heightened by a perception that the process of trade liberalisation is undemocratic in its governance and unbalanced against developing countries. Caribbean non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society, though primarily inspired by domestic issues, have found themselves impacted by, and so having to respond to, these international events. They contend that the WTO and the process of trade liberalisation must be reformed. They suggest a slowdown in the pace of further trade negotiations, a review of the promised benefits from trade, a change in the governance of the WTO, and an application of the general principle that, as small countries, unequal partners deserve unequal treatment. They also commit themselves to internal reorganisation and strengthening to more properly address these issues.
