Despite broad agreement that failure to reach a World Trade Organisation agreement in the Doha Round would be disastrous and unthinkable there appears to be very little movement in many key issues. Reports of disagreement and deadlock in the negotiations on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA, i.e. industrial tariffs) amongst the major trading nations still dominate the coverage of the talks. WTO Director General Pascal Lamy continues to warn in ominous tones about impending disaster and the dire consequences of failure.
However, while negotiations in other areas seem to be stuck in a never-ending loop, the WTO Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation has been making significant progress on making and clarifying proposals. At present WTO member countries have made over 100 proposals, which have come from developing, least developed and developed countries alike. More significantly, many of these proposals have been co-sponsored by developing/least developed and developed country members. These negotiations are also unique in that developing countries are not expected to implement commitments unless they receive the necessary technical assistance.
At present members, under the stewardship of Chairperson Ambassador Eduardo Sperisen-Yurt (Guatemala), are discussing the so-called "third generation" proposals - those proposals that have been resubmitted by the sponsoring members incorporating the views and concerns of other members. There has even been talk about "fourth-generation" texts - third generation proposals that have been further refined. Few, if any, submissions have been rejected outright and the WTO Secretariat's own compilation of members' proposals has reached revision 10 (document reference TN/TF/W/43/Rev.10). Informally most delegates accept that the substantial body of a draft trade facilitation agreement already exists.
In order to reflect this progress, SITPRO has revised its highly popular Guide to the WTO Trade Facilitation Negotiations to include details of all the third generation proposals. The guide can be downloaded from the SITPRO website at http://www.sitpro.org.uk/policy/wto/wtoguidev2.pdf (pdf 376KB 
).
In addition to this new guide SITPRO is continuing to argue the case for an agreement on trade facilitation. Work to support developing country members continues through the Boksburg Group meetings. Meanwhile, in the UK, SITPRO’s Trade Facilitation Agreements Advisory Group continues to examine the progress in these issues and hopes for a successful Doha Round with a single-undertaking that includes a robust agreement on trade facilitation.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 60, Spring 2007
