Chapter 4 CROSS-CUTTING AND NEW

ISSUES

§1 Regionalism: friends or rivals?

1. What is Regionalism?

Referred to regional economic integration agreements.

Examples: (P51)

2. Effectiveness of the Regional trading arrangements

--- Positive:

(1) Support the WTO’s multilateral trading

system,

(2) Abolish or reduce barriers on trade within

the group.

--- Potentially Negative:

(1) may threaten the multilateral trading

system,

(2) the trade may be more restrictive to Non-

members

3. WTO’s concern

On 6 February 1996, the WTO General Council created the Regional Trade Agreements Committee. Its purpose is to examine :

(1) whether they are consistent with WTO

rules.

(2) how regional arrangements might affect the

multilateral trading system, and

(3)what the relationship between regional and

multilateral arrangements might be.

§2 The environment: a new high profile

1.Where is the environment issue concerned?

(1) The WTO has no specific agreement

dealing with the environment,

(2) A number of the WTO agreements include

provisions dealing with environmental

concerns,and

(3) sustainable development and environmental protection are stated in the preamble to the Agreement Establishing the WTO.

2.The committee in the WTO concerning the issue:

Trade and Environment Committee

3. The principles of the committee’s work:

(1) only competent to deal with trade

(2) If the committee does identify problems, its

solutions must continue to uphold the

principles of the WTO trading system.

4. Issues concerned and concluded by the committee so far:

(1)WTO and environmental agreements: how

are they related?

-- the basic WTO principles of non-discrimination and transparency do not conflict with trade measures needed to protect the environment, including actions taken under the environmental agreements

-- using the provisions of an international environmental agreement is better than one country trying on its own to change other countries’ environmental policies

-- effective ways to protect the environment and having an impact on trade :helping countries acquire environmentally-friendly technology, giving them financial assistance, providing training, etc.

(2) Disputes: where should they be handled?

-- try to use the environmental agreement

(both sides to the dispute have signed that

agreement )

-- WTO would provide the only possible forum

(if one side in the dispute has not signed the

environment agreement)

(3) Eco-labelling: good, if it doesn’t discriminate

labelling used to describe whether for the way a product is produced (as distinct from the product itself) is environmentally-friendly.

(4) Transparency: information without too much paperwork

WTO members should provide as much information as possible about the environmental policies they have adopted or actions they may take, when these can have a significant impact on trade.

(5) Domestically prohibited goods:

dangerous chemicals, etc

Exported from developed countries to the

developing countries, which should be

informed the hazard or toxin of the goods

(6) Liberalization and sustainable development: good for each other

(7) Intellectual property, services: some

scope for study

More work is scheduled on this.

§5 Labour standards: highly controversial

1. “core labour standards”:

essential standards applied to the way workers are treated.

2. Trade and labour rights: deferred to the ILO (International Labour Organization )

(1)The debate outside the WTO has raised three broad questions:

-- The legal question:

-- The analytical question:

-- The institutional question:

(2) Recognition:

core labour standards, should not be used for protectionism