Doha Agenda
Introduction
The World Trade Organisation is the main governing body in world trade. With 153 member countries it represents over 95% of trade. It became the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1995 and is currently headed by Pascal Lamy.
The main undertakings of the W.T.O are as follows:
- Administering W.T.O trade agreements
- The forum for trade negotiations
- Handling trade disputes
- Monitoring national trade policies
- Provides technical assistance and training for developed countries
- Co-operation with other international organisations
Decisions in these areas are made by consensus among the entire membership.
The Doha Development Agenda was the latest trade negotiating talks round of the W.T.O. These began in Doha Qatar, in 2001 and were ongoing until earlier this year. The key priority of these talks was to aid both developed and developing countries by further liberalising trade globally. To achieve this, the W.T.O planned to revise their existing policies in certain aspects of trade. Some of these areas included:
- Agriculture market access: this was to be increased by reducing trade distortion through means of export subsidies and tariff reductions.
- Trade Facilitation
- Industrial market access
- Services: this proposed to liberalise trade in services
- W.T.O rules: aimed at abolishing anti-dumping in developing countries and drawing up new terms of approval for regional trade agreements (RTAs).
However these changes will not be introduced as the most recent round of the Doha talks collapsed in July of this year due to disagreements on agricultural import rules.
The major players were namely Brazil and India; who represented the G20 group of developing countries, the E.U, the U.S, and Australia on behalf of the Cairns group and Japan for the G10. The primary agenda of these members appeared to be agreement of all W.T.O members on a new trade development agenda.
Key Arguments:
Based on my
The World Trade Organisation is the main governing body in world trade. With 153 member countries it represents over 95% of trade. It became the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1995 and is currently headed by Pascal Lamy.
The main undertakings of the W.T.O are as follows:
- Administering W.T.O trade agreements
- The forum for trade negotiations
- Handling trade disputes
- Monitoring national trade policies
- Provides technical assistance and training for developed countries
- Co-operation with other international organisations
Decisions in these areas are made by consensus among the entire membership.
The Doha Development Agenda was the latest trade negotiating talks round of the W.T.O. These began in Doha Qatar, in 2001 and were ongoing until earlier this year. The key priority of these talks was to aid both developed and developing countries by further liberalising trade globally. To achieve this, the W.T.O planned to revise their existing policies in certain aspects of trade. Some of these areas included:
- Agriculture market access: this was to be increased by reducing trade distortion through means of export subsidies and tariff reductions.
- Trade Facilitation
- Industrial market access
- Services: this proposed to liberalise trade in services
- W.T.O rules: aimed at abolishing anti-dumping in developing countries and drawing up new terms of approval for regional trade agreements (RTAs).
However these changes will not be introduced as the most recent round of the Doha talks collapsed in July of this year due to disagreements on agricultural import rules.
The major players were namely Brazil and India; who represented the G20 group of developing countries, the E.U, the U.S, and Australia on behalf of the Cairns group and Japan for the G10. The primary agenda of these members appeared to be agreement of all W.T.O members on a new trade development agenda.
Key Arguments:
Based on my