Thursday, 6 June 2002

Services trade -- market access schedules Improvements in technology -- particularly communications technology -- and the dramatic fall in the price of most transport over the past half century (about 60% in real terms) have helped to make many services tradeable. But most national services markets are strongly protected by a variety of import barriers. A couple of years back I wrote a Guide to Reading Schedules. It explains how to read the WTO "Schedules" for Goods and for Services Trade. These documents record the commitments of WTO member governments on reductions in barriers to Services (and Merchandise) imports. They're about on a par with train time-tables for entertainment value. But every exporter (and importer) should know how what they contain: your 'rights' in trade. 11:30:01 PM    comment []

The 'governance' of the world trading system "Governance" is both one of the most interesting and one of the least tractable issues affecting the WTO. It encompasses a variety of difficult questions such as Is the WTO 'democratic'? Do its rules respect democratic processes? Should the WTO be democratic? Does the compulsory disputes resolution process undermine Members' sovereignty? Who really makes the decisions on global trade issues in the WTO and how? If you'd like an overview of some of the main issues in the governance of the world trading system, a good place to start is this extract from the Inquit guide to "WTO and Civil Society". The Guide was produced in early 2000 for the WTO Information Division. 7:53:10 PM    comment []

Frequently Asked Questions about WTO Disputes My Guide to WTO Disputes, now being prepared for publication by the WTO. You can find a interactive version of the first chapter of the Guide on the Inquit site. There's also an FAQ -- extracted from the Guide -- on the World Trade Rules site. Enjoy! 11:38:44 AM    comment []

Phillipines-Japan FTA? The Phillippines government reportedly wants to "go it alone" in a free-trade agreement with Japan as long as services are included. " The government is keen on forging a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan but on condition that the deal would not only be limited to trade in goods but also the opening up of the closed Japanese services sector. This developed as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) viewed a bilateral FTA with Japan as more feasible than forging an ASEAN-Japan FTA. " BUSINESS NEWS | - MB.COM.PH 11:22:57 AM    comment []

New Zealand continues to gain from WTO The NZ Ministry of Agriculture reckons that the gains in the past 6 years have exceeded $NZ1.5 billion. "The value of those gains is increasing every year," he said. His calculations were likely to underestimate the true gains to the agriculture sector and the wider economy as they did not include the gains achieved through reduced tariffs. And only selected sectors and markets had been considered. " STUFF 10:37:16 PM    comment []