participation in the wto and engaging with stakeholders
TRANSCRIPT
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Participation in the WTO and
Engaging with Stakeholders
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WTO: Who takes the decisions?
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WTO: Structure
►Ministerial Conference – Topmost decision-making body – Meets at least once every two years
►General Council– On behalf of the Ministerial Conference– Meets in Geneva
►Councils– Trade in Goods– Trade in Services– Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
►Committees, Working Groups/Parties, etc.
WT/L/161RoP
WT/L/509DG
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Ministerial Conference
General CouncilTPRB
DSBAppellate
Body
Panels Goods Council
Council on Services
TRIPS Council
Committees WG
Highest authority (in session at least every two years)
Adopt decisions on behalf of the Ministerial Conference (when the Conference is not in session)
Trade Policy Review Body (TRPB)Dispute Settlement Body (DSB)
Dispute settlement mechanismAdminister rules relating to trade in goodsAdminister rules relating to trade in servicesAdminister rules concerning trade-related aspects of
intellectual property rightsDevelopment, Environment, Regionalism, Balance of
Payments, Budget-Administration-Finances, Accessions, …
8WTO: Structure
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DYNAMICS OF THE DOHA
ROUND NEGOTIATIONS
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G–90
G-10
G-33
ACP
LDCs
Cairns Group
G-20
African Group
Iceland Israel Japan Liechtenstein Norway
SwitzerlandCh Taipei
EU G-27
RAMsTROPICAL PRODUCTS(Bolivia) (Colombia) (Costa Rica) (Ecuador) (Honduras) (Guatemala) (Nicaragua) (Panama) (Peru) (Venezuela)
ChadBurkina FasoBurundi Togo
Central African RepDjibouti DR Congo
Mali Gambia Guinea Guinea Bissau Lesotho
Malawi Mauritania NigerSierra Leone Rwanda
BeninMadagascar
SenegalUgandaZambiaTanzania
BelizeBarbadosAntigua/BarbudaDominica DominicanRepGrenada GuyanaSt Vincent/GrenadinesTrinidad/TobagoJamaica Suriname
St Kitts/Nevis St Lucia
GabonGhana
Namibia
Honduras MongoliaNicaragua
Panama Sri Lanka Turkey
El Salvador
NigeriaZimbabwe
BotswanaCameroonCongoCôte d’IvoireKenyaMozambique
EgyptTunisia Morocco
AngolaSwaziland
Mauritius
R Korea
AustriaBelgium Bulgaria
Cyprus CzechR DenmarkEstonia Finland France
Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy LatviaLithuania Luxembourg MaltaNetherlands Poland Portugal
Romania SlovakiaSlovenia Spain
Sweden UK
Mexico
IndiaChinaVenezuela
FijiPapua New Guinea
IndonesiaPakistanPhilippines
Peru
Cuba
Haiti
Australia Canada Colombia
Costa Rica Guatemala
Malaysia N Zealand
ChileBrazil
BoliviaUruguay
Thailand Paraguay
Argentina
BangladeshCambodia
Maldives MyanmarNepal
HongKongCh MacaoCh Singapore Qatar UAE Brunei Kuwait Bahrain
S Africa
Solomon Islands
USG–1
AlbaniaArmenia (Cape Verde)
(China) Croatia Ecuador FYR- Macedonia (Georgia)Jordan KyrgyzR Moldova
(Mongolia) Montengro Oman (Panama) RussianFed
Saudi-Arabia (Ch Taipei) Tonga Ukraine
Vanuatu VietNam
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‘Green Room’(Informal small group consultations)
Key players,reps. of all groups — hard bargaining, drafting
Formal plenary(Trade negotiations committee, TNC)
Full membership — speeches/consensus decisions
Informal, heads of delegations (HoDs)
All members — no record.Reports from consultations /reactions
Bilateral, very small group consultations
TNC chair, DG Pascal Lamy
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Stakeholders: Background
• What do we mean by stakeholders?
• The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization…..BUT…..
• Other important players exist : Parliamentarians, Civil Society (Private Sector, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Trade Unions), Press and Academia
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Stakeholders: Background (2)
• Parliamentarians, NGOs, Business Community and Academia
• Important caveat: Consultations with these Stakeholders are primarily the responsibility of individual WTO Members
• WTO Secretariat efforts complement what WTO Members are doing within their own stakeholders
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Stakeholders: Parliamentarians
• Elected representatives of the people
• Constitutional role on trade issues
• Crucial interface between people, civil society and governments
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The WTO & Parliamentarians (1)
• WTO relations with the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO and its Steering Committee
• Annual Conferences are also held alongside WTO Ministerial Conferences
• The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has made many contributions to the way MPs should be scrutinising trade and on the Executive and the Legislative interaction on the subject.
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The WTO & Parliamentarians (2)• WTO enhanced outreach and communication
activities for Parliamentarians
• The first Parliamentary Conference on WTO (PCWTO) was held at the WTO Headquarters in March 2011
• DG Lamy: “the entire WTO stands to benefit from the unique perspective that you — the world's Parliamentarians — are able to bring …Your views and your contribution enable WTO Members, and the Secretariat alike, to better understand peoples' needs and expectations, and to correct, or even change, the WTO's course if need be”
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The WTO & NGOs and Private Sector
• When Ministers adopted the Marrakesh Agreement, they also decided to include a specific reference to NGOs in Article V:2
• On 18 July 1996 the General Council further clarified the framework for relations with NGOs by adopting a set of guidelines (WT/L/162) which “recognizes the role NGOs can play to increase the awareness of the public in respect of WTO activities”
• Doha Ministerial Declaration: para. 10
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The WTO & NGOs and Private Sector (2)
• Levels of engagement vary from facilitating NGOs participation to Ministerial Conferences, publishing their reports on the WTO website (www.wto.org) and maintaining day-to-day contacts, including regular briefings by the Director-General and other WTO officials or Geneva-based representatives
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The WTO & NGOs and Private Sector (3)
• Participation to Ministerial Conferences increased from first Ministerial in Singapore in 1996 to the latest held in Geneva in 2011.
• In 1996, 159 NGOs registered & 108 NGOs (235 individuals) made it to Singapore including representatives from environment, development, consumer, business, trade union and farmer interests
• Thereafter, the numbers increased depending on the venue and the interest
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Participation of NGOs in WTO Ministerial Conferences
Ministerial No. of registered NGOs
NGOs that attended
No. of Participants
Singapore 1996 159 108 235
Geneva 1998 153 128 362
Seattle 1999 776 686 1500 approx
Doha 2001 651 370 370
Cancún 2003 961 795 1578
Hong Kong 2005 1065 812 1596
Geneva 2009 435 395 490
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The WTO & NGOs and Private Sector (4)• The WTO Public Forum has become an important fixture
on the International calendar of the Trade Community• Unique opportunity to link Governments with all the
other stakeholders in one place• WTO Public Forum 2012: “Is Multilateralism in Crisis?” –
WTO Headquarters - 24-26 Sept 2012• NGO advocacy has fed into WTO proceedings, e.g.
fisheries subsidies negotiation• Many calls by business organizations such as the
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) are often echoed within the intergovernmental process
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The WTO & Academia
• Many academicians involved in WTO economic research and technical assistance actions Higher School of Economics, Moscow State University
• WTO Chairs Programme (WCP): currently 15 Chairs established in Universities St. Petersburg University
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WHAT ARE THE GOVERNMENTS
DOING TO FURTHER
ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS?
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What are Governments doing? (1)• Government positions in the WTO context
should be reflecting the outcome of wide-ranging consultations with all national stakeholders (Private Sector, NGOs, Trade Unions, Academics, etc…)
• All agreements negotiated at the WTO are normally ratified by Members of Parliament: in many instances, by far the more powerful and bigger stakeholder
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What are Governments doing? (2)
Illustrations of how Member countries of the WTO pledge to engage with other stakeholders
• EU, US and Turkey
• Other WTO Members
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Some concluding remarks
• Ways to engage stakeholders vary extensively ranging from complete denial to inextricable relationships
• In many instances the management of the stakeholders is a delicate exercise of transparency for the governments
• Information flowing and sharing is key in building a relationship based on trust
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Some concluding remarks (2)• Consultations should be wide-ranging and
generalized
• Consultations prior to negotiations can help at a later stage, e.g. implementation
• Consultations allow the negotiator(s) to have a panoramic view of the national interests at play
• If managed efficiently, engaging stakeholders can strengthen negotiating positions, BUT it can be difficult and tortuous
