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The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) was a turning point in the reform of the agricultural trade system. It imposed disciplines on trade-distorting domestic policies and established new rules in the areas of market access and export competition. How effective have the three disciplines contained in the URAA been in bringing about a reduction in the level of production-related support and protection? Which elements of the disciplines have proved effective and which ineffective? What policy lessons can be drawn from the experience so far? What might be inferred about opportunities and challenges for further trade liberalisation? This report provides some answers to these questions for all OECD countries.
A key conclusion of the report is that the immediate quantitative effects of the URAA on trade and protection levels have been modest. The reasons for this include the weakness of many specific features of the URAA including implementation and methodological issues.
Countries have already embarked on a new round of multilateral trade negotiations on agriculture. The challenge facing policy makers is to build upon the foundation of the URAA to further reduce trade distortions. This requires strengthening the disciplines already established under the URAA and addressing those weaknesses of the current agreement which have been identified in this study.
Agricultural trade disputes over issues such as beef hormones and genetically modified organisms have received wide public attention and illustrated the trade-off between domestic and international policy objectives. This report examines pertinent issues at the interface between domestic policy objectives, technical regulations and agricultural trade. It also discusses approaches to measuring the trade impacts of food safety and other technical measures, and presents empirical evidence concerning the trade effects of resolving controversial food safety issues.
The Arrangement on Guidelines for Officially Supported Export Credits celebrates its twentieth birthday this year. The 'Arrangement', as the Guidelines are usually known, is a unique form of international co-operation: as a 'gentlemen's agreement', it has no formal status in law – and yet it has brought order to the supply of export credits (government subsidies to exporters), thus saving billions of dollars of taxpayers' money. Thanks to the Arrangement, exporters in OECD countries now compete on the basis of quality and price, not according to the degree of support they receive from the state. Progressive improvements in the Arrangement, moreover, have extended its coverage, preventing trade distortion and subsidy in the form of tied aid and unrealistic premium fees.
In this collection of essays, past and present negotiators of the Arrangement's guidelines, Presidents and Chief Executives of export credit agencies, international institutions, private-sector players, economists and others involved with the Arrangement from its earliest days chart its evolution – its inception and progressive expansion, the difficulties encountered and problems solved. They examine the sources of the flexibility that has made the Arrangement so successful in adapting to the changing, globalising world economy. Some of the contributions offer candid insights into the closed world of international negotiations. Others document the response of the Arrangement to the growing sophistication of financial and insurance services. All of them shed light on this increasingly important aspect of international trade.
This book will be required reading for anyone interested in the world trading system and the role of export credits in particular, in the relationship between trade and aid, and in international co-operation in general.
This book retraces the Communities' external liberalisation efforts, and discusses, where relevant, the repercussions of internal liberalisation on foreign competitors. The aim of this book is to clarify, and when feasible, to quantify the economic effects of the EU’s trade policies. To this end, it provides an overview of past liberalisation efforts, reviews trade indicators in international comparison and lays out the future trade agenda of the Community. According to the empirical evidence provided in this volume, integration in Europe does not seem to have entailed much trade diversion, while trade is likely to have boosted area-wide income significantly. It is openness in general, rather than regional integration, that has favoured growth in Europe.
The multilateral trading system has delivered successive rounds of trade liberalisation and established mechanisms to protect the interests of trading nations. The result has been growth for those nations that have recognised the importance of openness and established a domestic policy framework that complements the opportunities presented by trade liberalisation. How have some developing countries been able to turn globalisation to their advantage? What trade issues will need to be addressed if development is to be promoted more broadly? How can the multilateral trading system facilitate the development process? This publication provides an in-depth analysis of the development dimensions of trade, with particular emphasis on the integration of non-OECD countries into the global economy.
This is the 1998 Arrangement. The main purpose of the Arrangement is to provide the institutional framework for an orderly export credit market; it aims to prevent an export credit race in which exporting countries compete on the basis of who grants the most favourable financing terms rather than on the basis of the price and quality of the product. The Arrangement sets limits on the terms and conditions for export credits involving credit terms of two years or more - that is, that are insured, guaranteed, extended, refinanced or subsidised by or through export credit agencies. In addition to providing a framework for official export credits, the Arrangement sets out rules for tied aid and for risk-based premium fees. The Arrangement is a gentlemen's agreement; it is not an OECD legal Act. The Participants to the Arrangement are most OECD Member countries
This study takes an in-depth look at the arable crops sector in OECD countries and draws some conclusions about the impacts of agricultural support policies, trade liberalisation, agri-environmental payments, and agri-ennvironmental regulations. It contains economic and structural data, agri-environmental indicators for the arable crops sector, and analysis of the policy measures supporting arable crops farming and addressing environmental issues both at the aggregate country level and regional levels. This is the third in a series of in-depth studies being undertaken by the OECD to investigate the linkages between agriculture, trade and the environment. The first study on the pig sector was published in 2003, and the second study on the dairy sector was published in 2004.
Developing countries want to join in the globalisation process. However, the increasing complexity of global markets, the new challenges of the multilateral trading system and the competing demands of regional, bilateral and multilateral trade agreements confront developing countries with an expanding array of competitiveness and policy challenges. And, in many cases, they lack the institutional and human resource capacity to meet these challenges.
The DAC Guidelines on Strengthening Trade Capacity for Development have been prepared on the basis of an emerging international consensus and understanding of how the international community can work together more effectively. They intend to help developing countries enhance their capacity to trade and participate more effectively in the international rule-making and institutional mechanisms that shape the global trading system. They also provide a common reference point for the trade, aid and finance communities, putting trade capacity building in the context of comprehensive approaches to development and poverty reduction.
Part I of this two-part study sets out a framework for the analysis of State trading enterprises (STEs). It emphasises their diverse nature and the imperfectly competitive markets in which many of them operate. Although State trading enterprises may be granted monopoly powers, their objectives and therefore their behaviour may differ from that of private sector monopolies. All these factors should be considered in trying to assess the potential impact of STEs on market access or on world export markets.
Part II assembles and classifies a large amount of information and data concerning agricultural state trading enterprises in OECD countries. The criteria used relate to the potential of these enterprises to distort markets and trade.
Cette publication conjointe de l'OCDE et d'Eurostat contient les statistiques sur les échanges internationaux de services pour les vingt-neuf pays Membres de l'OCDE ainsi que des définitions et des notes méthodologiques. Les données sont fournies et publiées selon le Cinquième Manuel de la Balance des Paiements du FMI et la classification OCDE-Eurostat des Échanges de Services, qui est totalement compatible avec celle de la balance des paiements mais plus détaillée. Cet ouvrage inclut des tableaux récapitulatifs par pays et par catégorie de service et des totaux par zone pour UE15, UE12, EUR11 et OCDE qui sont comparables. Pour chaque pays, les données par catégorie détaillée de services sont également fournies. Les séries chronologiques couvrent la période 1987-1996 autant que la disponibilité des données le permet.
An analytical framework for assessing and managing the relationship between regional agreements and the world multilateral trading system. Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are increasingly portrayed as a threat to the free global exchange of goods and services. Moreover, should the WTO-approved Doha Round of multilateral talks end in deadlock, many member countries would likely place even greater emphasis on regional agreements. This book provides WTO members with an analytical framework for assessing and managing the relationship between regionalism and the world multilateral trading system.
The trade liberalisation agreements signed between the European Union and the southern Mediterranean countries carry risks as well as benefits. They reveal structural weaknesses in the partner countries, including continued rent seeking, market segmentation, a weak modern private sector and inadequate fiscal systems. In the short term, since the agreements only cover industrial goods and not agriculture or services, there is a risk of job losses in the domestic industrial sector due to competition from the EU.
The authors of this study highlight the opportunities the agreements offer for supporting reforms to encourage industrial restructuring through financial transfers, providing incentives for producers to diversify, and securing new markets. Achieving the reforms, however, will require political will in the southern Mediterranean countries and complementary reforms in the European Union to open its markets further to include those sectors currently excluded from the agreements. Moreover, as demonstrated by the authors' detailed analysis of the Egyptian and Tunisian cases, a regional response to the challenges posed by the agreements is likely to bring more benefits than a purely national response.
What are the major barriers to services trade? To what extent would further liberalisation of trade in services result in increased welfare gains and economic growth? Empirical evidence is also important to demonstrate the economic effects of market and regulatory changes as an aid to the design of adequate regulatory reform.
Amongst other issues, the papers in this volume explore fundamental issues for empirical research on trade in services. It highlights the specific data requirements and conceptual challenges for modelling liberalisation of services.
Economic integration in West Africa is a major political objective for all the States in the region and is supported by the main economic players in the region. The weight of Nigeria -- which accounts for 50% of the regional economy -- the many constraints to formal trade, linguistic barriers, these all raise as many hopes as fears among the economic players in neighbouring countries with respect to their future relations with this powerful neighbour.
Prospects for Trade between Nigeria and its Neighbours, a study undertaken by the Laboratoire d’Analyse Regional et d’Expertise Sociale (LARES) in Cotonou, commissioned by the Club du Sahel, examines the issues. It describes the still largely informal trade in the region, analysing constraints to its growth and some possible future developments.
Presented as a series of concise, well documented "fact sheets", this study will be of interest to those in both public and private spheres who believe that regional trade development is a necessary response to globalisation. Prospects for Trade between Nigeria and its Neighbours has formed the basis of a workshop organised by the Club du Sahel and the West African Enterprise Network for English and French entrepreneurs in December 2000 in Cotonou, Benin.
Developing countries are concerned that multilateral tariff reductions will harm their agricultural sectors because of preference erosion. The findings in this report suggest that although this may indeed be a problem for some countries in some sectors, factors other than preferential schemes may be limiting developing country exports. The report provides information on the extent to which developing countries have used selected, non-reciprocal preferential trading schemes provided by the EU and the US. Secondary data are complemented by interviews with market operators further clarifying the empirical findings. A special section has been devoted to the preferences granted to African countries highlighting the conditions for this set of developing countries.
Two of the most significant success stories of post-war trade diplomacy and multilateral trade negotiations that have occurred under the auspices of the GATT (now the WTO) have been the massive reductions in tariffs, and the establishment of non-discriminatory tariffs as the principal means of trade protection.
When leaders from around the world gather in Seattle, Washington at the end of November 1999, a fresh opportunity to continue dismantling tariff barriers will present itself. This book provides trade negotiators with an indispensable tool that will help them formulate their negotiating objectives and strategies in the area of tariffs; it also provides policy analysts with key data that are necessary to define negotiating scenarios and to impute the corresponding impact on trade, employment and growth.
Finally, students of international trade will no longer need to labour over obtaining comprehensive, detailed, and comparable tariff-line data and could proceed to apply these to policy issues and options.
The benefits of open markets are tangible. In the last decade, countries that have been more open to trade and investment have achieved double the average annual growth of more closed economies. More individuals, firms and nations than ever before depend on the gains from trade and investment liberalisation. Yet anxiety about the effects of greater market integration remains.
It is essential for long-term world prosperity that countries' commitment to trade and investment liberalisation be sustained. To be credible, that commitment must be rooted in and enjoy broad public support and understanding. This makes it all the more important to communicate what trade and investment liberalisation can and cannot do and be held responsible for.
Trade and investment liberalisation is not painless. It should not be viewed as a cure-all nor presented as an end in itself. It is, however, an essential component of any coherent set of policies aimed at helping societies adjust to - and take advantage of - technology-driven transformations whose pace and depth are unprecedented.
The stakes are high. This book examines the various channels through which open markets deliver considerable benefits to societies and their citizens; recalls the real pocket-book costs of protectionism; and addresses the full range of concerns that feature prominently in ongoing discussions over the effects of market liberalisation on employment, income distribution, environmental protection and national sovereignty.
A central message of this book is that liberalisation forms part of the solution to the concerns of citizens, rather than being their root cause. The book's comprehensive treatment of the ins and outs of trade and investment liberalisation should make an important contribution to the public debate. It is essential reading for public officials, business leaders and private citizens who wish to take an active part in it.