The members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) gathered for the past few days in the capital of Cameroon for their biennial ministerial conference. Before the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), sober pragmatism seemed possible. After four days of tense but fruitless negotiations in Yaoundé, sobering pragmatism carried the day. And both assessments still sit at the positive end of the evaluative spectrum. (mehr …)
China’s decision to drop the Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) at the World Trade Organization (WTO) is less a legal earthquake than a strategic signal — but its symbolism matters. Announced by Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the move to forego the SDT that comes with being labelled a “developing country” in the WTO allows Beijing to claim a form of “grown‑up” membership in the global trading order while recalibrating its diplomacy toward key trade partners and developing countries. (mehr …)
The first two sentences delivered by the U.S. representative at the 3rd session of FfD4 Preparatory Committee (3rd PrepCom) last week were already tough ones: “At the outset, I underscore that the United States is currently evaluating its membership and participation in all international organisations and processes. Thus, we are reserving on the whole draft at this time.” With this statement, the elephant in the room – the role of the new U.S. administration in the FfD negotiations – was finally addressed. And what the elephant said was unsettling: It questioned the U.S. participation altogether. (mehr …)
©WTO, altered, https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/photo_gallery_e/photo_gallery_e.htm
The current debate on the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement could be very consequential for the World Trade Organization (WTO) although it is not part of the official calendar of next week’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi. (mehr …)
The world is grappling with a deadly pandemic unleashed on the planet by the Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2/ HCoV-19). In its wake, the votaries of globalisation who have been espousing the cause of a borderless world of business with seamless flow of international trade, capital and even human resources across the world seem to be stung by a creepy realization whether the paeans sung by them were all worth the effort. More than the social and cultural aspects of globalisation, its economic manifestation in the form of product market integration with concomitant cross-border value chains has been credited with having contributed richly to the growth of the global and national economies. Today, more than half the world has locked down their economic, social, political and cultural activities to arrest the spread of the corona virus that has already infected nearly eight million patients world-wide and claimed over four hundred thousand lives as on the 15 June, 2020. (mehr …)
