Trade Facilitation Agreement Case Study

1246 Words5 Pages

4.3.3 Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) The TFA was the first agreement attained in the Bali Ministerial meeting since the past 20 years in the last Uruguay Round. it has been declared as a ‘win-win’ situation for both the developing and developed nations . The TFA was proposed to be added in the DDA in 2004 meeting with the aim to reduce bureaucracy while trading in goods. Former United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick was once quoted as describing trade facilitation measures as 'basically an extension of market access procedures that lower transaction costs and increase timeliness of transit.' It was the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) which saw the importance of Trade Facilitation in 2003 for the 8000 businesses that …show more content…

The agreement comprised primarily of three sections: Section I : aiming at the reduction in trade costs and improving the understandability of the GATT articles (V,VIII and X) and sets out provisions for custom cooperation. Section II: comprised of the special and differential treatment provided to countries requiring technical support to implement the agreement and to identify those provisions needed. Section III :states that each member should have a national committee to supervise and ease the adoption and progress of this Agreement. Implementation Issues : Although a win-win situation, some developing countries or least developed countries will require technical assistance to implement it. Thus three categories were developed to support these countries (Appendix 1).Some countries could implement these framework after being offered technical assistance or a transitional period. Moreover, the highlight in this Agreement was that India could have single handedly block its negotiation since it was against this proposal. India raised the issue of Food Security and was bent on continue to buy food grains at high prices from farmers and sell it at lower on the market. It was considered as a form of subsidy but eventually it was distorting the world food market by leading to an increase in prices and also stockpiling of these grains as supply had a high …show more content…

The negotiation came at a deadlock point between the developing and developed nations under the Paris Convention (Yu Peter 2004). The trips were reintroduced in the Doha round in relation to cater for the crisis faced by poor countries concerning access to essential medications. The intellectual property patent deepened the problems as it was keeping drug prices too high and those in need of it couldn’t afford it. Intellectual property laws should also create incentives for pharmaceuticals to invest in risky research and development. That’s why the need to revise the legal framework of this Agreement was introduced in the Doha round in 2001. The agreement was based on five broad issues: • How basic principles of the trading system and other international intellectual property agreements should be applied to improve trade? • How to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights? • How countries should enforce those rights adequately in their own territories? • How to settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the

Open Document