Pregovori u okviru GATT i STO

Jelisavac Trošić, Sanja (2015) Pregovori u okviru GATT i STO. Institut za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, Beograd. ISBN 978-86-7067-212-3

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Abstract

The multilateral trade negotiations which resulted in cutting tariffs have helped the trade liberalisation process and the trends of high rates of world trade growth to continue to outstrip output growth. The world trading system headed by the GATT and WTO is responsible for an important part of world trade growth. Modalities for negotiations are established before negotiations begin themselves. The final results of negotiations are most often tariffs cutting, keeping tariffs at the existing level or taking responsibility that they will not grow above certain level. The exchanged and agreed concession lists are becoming an integral part of the GATT. The tariffs for the products included in the tariff concession lists cannot be higher than those that are specified in the lists. Import taxes can neither be higher than those that were valid at the time the concessions were agreed. The procedure of regular negotiations implies that at the beginning of every regular negotiation round the Trade Negotiations Committee is established and it will work until the round is finished. As in practice it is impossible to negotiate with all participants at one time at the Trade Negotiations Committee it has the role of co- ordinating the course of negotiations and ensuring that it is being followed and transparent. The role of the chairperson is to help negotiators reach a compromise. Negotiations are conducted at a large number of committees, subcommittees and negotiating groups. In practice, most parts of negotiations are conducted within numerous groups which are established by taking into account common interests of negotiators, similar degree of development, geographical connections or by applying some other criterion. At the World Trade Organization decisions are made by consensus, what implies that the body has reached a decision on the issues which have been submitted to be considered if no member or its representative attending the meeting votes against the proposed decision. For this reason, it is very significant that all members ensure the presence of their representatives at the meeting where decisions are made on the issues which they consider vital and important for their economies. Modalities in multilateral trade negotiations are the methods or ways in which negotiations will be conducted. Without previous agreement on modalities it is not possible to make specific the negotiations on the market access at the World Trade Organization. Agreement and adoption of modalities of negotiation rounds have become very complex and long. Conflicts of opinion on the choice of formula occur very often and in fact, these formula negotiations are becoming increasingly long and complicated what can be corroborated by the current Doha Round being longer than all time limits that have been anticipated. At rounds countries do not negotiate applied rates but bound rates which are usually higher than applied ones. When negotiators agree on the formulae all member countries apply them on tariffs, i.e. countries bind themselves not to raise tariffs above the agreed level. During negotiation rounds countries often wish to exclude some of their products from being liberalised. Thus, the largest number of tariffs in developed countries is low, but for the rest groups of products they are pretty high. In comparison to developing countries, developed countries more protect sectors of agriculture and food processing while protection in developing countries is more balanced, although all together it is high being focused on foodstuffs and non-foodstuffs. Tariff binding exerts a direct impact on the trade regimes of member countries of the World Trade Organization, thus making to some extent international trade secure. Tariff binding reduces the variability of the foreign trade policy. The first round of multilateral trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization, the so-called Doha Round was initiated at the fourth meeting of the Ministerial Conference, which took place from 9 to 13 November 2001. Liberalisation of the international trade system considering the development needs of developing countries was proclaimed as the fundamental goal of this negotiation round, thus making it known as the Development Round. The choice of negotiation modalities proved to be more complicated than it had been the case in the previous rounds which took place under the GATT auspices and it was for several reasons. It was above all, for much bigger dispersion between the initial tariff regimes of active member countries of the World Trade Organization than it had been the case in the previous negotiation rounds, then for a big gap between applied and bound tariffs as well as for a much larger number of countries that were active participants in the negotiations. From the beginning the negotiations went on being burdened by big problems. A large number of countries resisted the strict and consistent application of the formula cutting tariff peaks was, although, on the other hand, as for market access it would bring great benefits. This is because variations in round negotiation modalities considerably influence the negotiations on the market access to WTO member countries. In the negotiations which have been conducted so far on facilitating the market access of non-agricultural products the Swiss formula has been adopted, while coefficients for the formula have also been determined. In applying the Swiss formula developed countries would use coefficient 8 for all, whereby there would be no difference in its application, while developing countries could choose three options in applying coefficients 20, 22 and 25. In the negotiations of the facilitation of market access of agricultural products the tiered formula for tariff cutting was adopted having four scopes of application. By the application of the tiered formula would be achieved proportionally that would increase by moving upward between four groups. The negotiation modalities at the Doha Round are not based on a services formula but on individual offers on the part of any WTO member country in the field of market access and national treatment in some sectors. Unfortunately, the service sector is still burdened by too many non-tariff barriers including prohibitions and quotas as well as discriminatory measures. After the application of the Swiss formula in developed countries bound tariffs for non-agricultural products will be cut by less than 8 per cent. At the moment, the highest tariffs which developed countries apply are concentrated in the textile, garment and footwear sectors. When those tariffs are cut below 8 per cent they will be a lesser obstacle to trade than are non-tariff barriers or even transportation costs. Besides textile, garment and footwear exporting developing countries the facilitation of market access will bring benefits to end consumers in developed countries. After the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations are successfully finished average bound tariffs for non-agricultural products in developed countries will range from 5.5 to 14.5 per cent, what will also be a considerable reduction in comparison to the present ones. Until the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations is successfully finished the WTO’s Agriculture Agreement that was adopted at the Uruguay Round will be applied and it has not had sufficiently contributed to liberalisation. Applied trade-weighted tariff averages for agricultural products are much higher than for non-agricultural products, what proves that there is a tendency of stronger protection of agricultural products both in developed and developing countries. By the final adoption of the formulae and modalities as well as by the conclusion of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations a big difference between applied and bound tariffs will be eliminated. This would enable the following negotiation round to have more easily bound as well as applied tariffs cut. Besides, in this way, in the years coming after the Doha Round no big shocks caused by raising applied tariffs can occur because their maximal values are determined by bound tariffs. One should, however, not expect that the conclusion of the Doha Round will bring some great and general liberalisation but it will bring more safety in business and will facilitate market access. The conclusion of the Round will symbolically and substantially make stronger the World Trade Organization and strengthen its role in the prevention of protectionism, especially at crisis times. As the result of the conclusion of the Doha Round average tariffs exporters of agricultural products are facing will decrease and it is especially important for developing countries that tariff peaks for labour intensive products will be considerable reduced. However, what is at this moment offered in the international trade negotiations does not meet the needs a great number of countries had at the beginning of the Doha Development Round. Perhaps the greatest dilemma in the negotiations is the fact that at their beginning tariff cutting formulae are very ambitiously defined that would, however, with making a large number of flexibilities and exceptions to the application of the formula undermine it increasingly making it more acceptable for all countries participating in the negotiations. It is important to stress that in order not to make losses for least developed countries the Doha Development Round should be supported by at least two and even more special Initiatives (Duty Free Quota Free Market Access Initiative and Aid for Trade). The negotiations Serbia is conducting on the accession to the World Trade Organization have been going on since 2005. The successful and quick completion of the negotiations for the accession to the WTO depends on the rate of fulfilling the conditions by the county which were set by the organisation as well as on WTO member countries themselves. When our country joins the WTO its future economic development and possibilities for the market expansion for the sale of domestic products will depend on the conditions under which it has accessed it. Year after year it is required that tariffs are bound at increasingly lower levels, hence, the gap between bound tariffs of old and new WTO member countries is becoming bigger and bigger. For this reason, it is necessary to speed up as much as possible the present process of Serbia’s accession to the organisation. After a country joins the WTO it retains the rights to protect domestic producers from unfair trade practices of some other producers such as dumped imports or imports of subsidised goods. When a country becomes a member of the World Trade Organization its trade regime is regulated by the rules of this organisation. In this way, explicit rules are established for all domestic companies and for all foreign investors or traders that wish to access to our market. When we compare Serbia’s customs regime we notice that it is considerably more liberal from average customs regime of countries which are at the same level of development. We can conclude from this that exporters in Serbia are much more burdened by higher tariffs at export markets than are tariff burdens for exports to Serbia’s market. Unfortunately, this makes an additional impact on Serbia’s companies whose level of competiveness is already rather low. Companies which are oriented towards foreign markets prefer predictability and transparency in trade flows, what the membership of their country in the World Trade Organization ensures. If we include in the analysis numerous non-tariff barriers which are applied in the world today we see that they are much more applied by Serbia’s foreign trade partners than Serbia does itself. Before it had started the negotiations on the accession to the WTO and in parallel with them Serbia liberalised its foreign trade on several occasions. Taking into consideration the fact that the country was at a low level of development and the economic situation was very difficult the abrupt and exaggerated liberalisation of exports which choked the domestic production proved to be economically irrational. This brought about decrease in domestic production, increase in unemployment and even greater poverty in the whole country. The World Trade Organization reduces fluctuations. The reduction of instability of exports increases imports by itself. By promoting and establishing stability of international trade the WTO encourages companies to be engaged in foreign trade and to invest abroad. If our country soon joins the WTO it will be offered opportunities to take advantages of its membership in this organisation.

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