Three proponent groups announced new initiatives to advance talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on electronic commerce, investment facilitation, and micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs).
The proponent groups unveiled their plans to move forward with discussions in the three areas.
Seventy-one members said they will initiate exploratory work towards future WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce. The group, which accounts for around 77% of global trade, plans to hold its first meeting in the first quarter of 2018.
On investment facilitation, 70 WTO members announced plans to discuss developing a multilateral framework on investment facilitation. The proponents, who account for around 73% of trade and 66% of inward foreign direct investment (FDI), agreed to meet early in 2018.
“These discussions shall seek to identify and develop the elements of a framework for facilitating foreign direct investments that would: improve the transparency and predictability of investment measures; streamline and speed up administrative procedures and requirements; and enhance international cooperation, information sharing, the exchange of best practices, and relations with relevant stakeholders, including dispute prevention,” said the group in a joint statement.
On MSMEs, 87 WTO members accounting for around 78% of world exports issued a joint statement declaring their intention to create, multilaterally, an informal working group on MSMEs at the WTO.
The discussion would address obstacles related to foreign trade operations that represent a significant burden for MSMEs interested in participating in international trade.
“With the utmost degree of transparency, the group will discuss, among others, issues of relevance to MSMEs, related to improved access to information for MSMEs; ways to promote a more predictable regulatory environment for MSMEs; reduction of trade costs, including areas such as trade facilitation, shipping and logistics, and procedures and requirements related to origin; promotion, including through cooperation with other multilateral institutions, of better access to trade finance for MSMEs; identification of issues of particular interest to MSMEs that could be addressed in WTO Trade Policy reports; and consideration of how technical assistance and capacity building initiatives could take into account the trade needs and challenges of MSMEs.”
The announcements were made on December 13 during the final day of the WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
ICC responds
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), meanwhile, issued a statement upon the conclusion of the MC11.
“The ministerial statements issued on e-commerce, small businesses and services set a strategic and pragmatic path for the WTO to address new issues among coalitions of the willing. We welcome this approach and encourage all governments to advance these new workstreams expeditiously in 2018,” ICC said.
Photo courtesy of WTO
