Participation in the WTO and Engaging with Stakeholders - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

About This Presentation
Title:

Participation in the WTO and Engaging with Stakeholders

Description:

Participation in the WTO and Engaging with Stakeholders WTO: Who takes the decisions? WTO: Structure Ministerial Conference Topmost decision-making body Meets at ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:127
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 25
Provided by: ElHachi
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Participation in the WTO and Engaging with Stakeholders


1
Participation in the WTO and Engaging with
Stakeholders
2
WTO Who takes the decisions?
3
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/161 RoP
WT/L/509 DG
4
8
WTO Structure
TPRB
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)
Administer rules concerning trade-related aspects
of intellectual property rights
Development, Environment, Regionalism, Balance of
Payments, Budget-Administration-Finances,
Accessions,
Administer rules relating to trade in goods
Dispute settlement mechanism
Administer rules relating to trade in services
Dispute Settlement Body (DSB)

4
5
DYNAMICS OF THE DOHA ROUND NEGOTIATIONS
6
TROPICAL PRODUCTS (Bolivia) (Colombia)
(Costa Rica) (Ecuador) (Honduras) (Guatemala)
(Nicaragua) (Panama) (Peru) (Venezuela)
7
(No Transcript)
8
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

9
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

10
Stakeholders Parliamentarians
  • Elected representatives of the people
  • Constitutional role on trade issues
  • Crucial interface between people, civil society
    and governments

11
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.

12
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

13
The WTO NGOs and Private Sector
  • When Ministers adopted the Marrakesh Agreement,
    they also decided to include a specific reference
    to NGOs in Article V2
  • 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

14
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

15
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

16
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

17
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

18
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

19
WHAT ARE THE GOVERNMENTS DOING TO FURTHER ENGAGE
STAKEHOLDERS?
20
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

21
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

22
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

23
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

24
  • THANK YOU!

Samer.Seif_at_wto.org Susan.Hainsworth_at_wto.org Sera
fino.Marchese_at_wto.org
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com