Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Doha Development Agenda (2001- ) http'

Thesis (MScAgric (Agricultural Economics)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
The Doha Round of negotiations on the liberalisation of agricultural trade inherited complications from its predecessor - the Uruguay Round (UR). It needs to be noted, as one of the fundamental differences, that agriculture sectors in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) get support from their governments. In contrast to the situation, in the developing countries, agriculture is taxed to generate government revenue. The subsidies that farmers receive in the developed countries affect farmers globally through world prices (world prices depression). Therefore protection and greater subsidies should be not encouraged. As such, after a long time of preferential treatment, agriculture trade was tabled as a separate issue of negotiations at the UR and resulted to the round to be prolonged. However, one of the achievements of the UR was imposing of bound tariffs on agricultural products and determining tariff equivalence for non-tariff measures. Then, the Doha Round (DR) also known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) which is the first round to place development and focus strongly on agricultural liberalisation as a tool for development. International trade theory supports agricultural liberalisation, as negotiated in the DDA. Therefore, the DDA, in seeking more liberalised agricultural markets, continues a theoretically sound approach, as in the UR. The effects of liberalising agricultural trade in the DDA will differ across countries, whereas some will gain, others may loose, and the same situation is true for different sectors within an economy. The focus of the DDA on agriculture, as a tool of development, links well to the fact that agriculture in the developing countries accounts for a substantial share of their gross domestic products (GDPs) and exports. This situation, therefore, calls for a closer consideration of the possible impact of agricultural liberalisation in South Africa even though agricultural share of GDP is less than 4 percent.

A presente dissertação teve como objetivo explicar as razões para a \"vitória\" da coalizão liderada pelo Brasil nas negociações do TRIPs e saúde Pública da OMC, que culminaram na Declaração de Doha em 2001. Partindo da literatura de teoria dos jogos aplicada aos estudos legislativos, procurei mostrar que era possível adaptar para a OMC os resultados dessa literatura, em particular a ênfase na idéia de controle de agenda. Basicamente, a tese central do trabalho é que para o caso ora em tela são as regras institucionais que determinam os resultados das negociações, pois determinam a distribuição de poder em barganhas. Assim, acreditamos ter mostrado que é possível explicar o resultado final das negociações em TRIPs e Saúde Pública a partir da regra do consenso, juntamente com a neutralidade no controle de agenda e a distribuição da impaciência dos atores. A análise sugere uma fecunda agenda de pesquisa tanto no estudo de se estudar quaisquer jogos nãocooperativos em instituições internacionais bem como para uma formulação do poder em relações internacionais de cunho institucionalista.
This dissertation aimed to explain why Brazilian leaded coalition was capable of achieve a \"victory\" in WTO negotiation on TRIPs and Public Health, which culminated in the Doha Declaration. Following game theory applied to legislative studies, we tried to show the attainableness of suiting that literature to WTO negotiation, specially the feature of agenda setting. Basically, our main thesis is that what dictate negotiation results in this case is the institutional setting, since it determine power distribution among actors. Thus, we expect have shown the possibility of explain the final result in the TRIPs and Public Health negotiation by consensus rule, neutrality of agenda setting and the distribution of states impatience. The analysis has suggested a rich research agenda in the study of any noncooperative game in international institutions as well in the formulation of an institutionalist power concept in international relations.

The emergence of Southern powers constitutes a defining feature of contemporary global governance. Their rising impact has been particularly evident in the Doha round of WTO negotiations where leading developing countries have come to play an increasingly important role in the negotiating process. India and South Africa are two Southern powers that played a central role in WTO negotiations during 2001-5. Acting as representatives of the global South, the two countries determined to a considerable extent the positions of developing countries in conceding to the agenda being negotiated or blocking different stages of negotiations. They also projected, however, different strategies, interests and world-views, and ultimately achieved, with varying degrees of success, their relocation within the WTO. The experience of India and South Africa in the first four years of the Doha round constitutes a framework for understanding the conditions under which Southern powers are repositioning in the global trading system and in the international political economy. To understand the role of India and South Africa in the Doha round, this thesis will deploy a synthesis of middle power approaches as the theoretical prism for analysing the trade diplomacy of the two countries. Middle power approaches offer an ensemble of conceptual categories which allow for theorising the rise of Southern powers, delineating both the nature of their influence and their broader systemic role. The middle power roles of India and South Africa will be assessed through a detailed analysis of documents and public statements in the period under examination. It will be demonstrated that during the Doha round, both countries emerged as middle powers projecting a reformist world-view of multilateral trade negotiations. Their ability to effect change was severely conditioned by the leadership provided by the two major trading powers, the US and the EU, and their own capacity to sustain broad bases of followership in the global South.

The agricultural negotiations in the World Trade Organizationâ s (WTO) Doha Development Agenda (DDA) are calling for a specific Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries that will protect agricultural producers from import surges or price declines, and could potentially add stability to domestic markets. While most of the parameters of this SSM have been decided upon, the DDA negotiations faltered on the issue of whether or not developing nations should be allowed to exceed their pre-Doha bound tariff rates when invoking the SSM. For developing countries, tariffs on agricultural products are an important policy tool to support domestic prices and protect their smallholder producers from global market shifts. Tariffs, however, distort world prices and create global welfare losses. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the impacts of the SSM on global prices and welfare using a non-spatial, synthetic, stochastic, global, partial equilibrium model of the world soybean market. The SSM is assessed in concert with the currently proposed DDA tariff cutting formulas since the additional duties allowed under the SSM are proportional to prevailing bound tariff levels. This study asserts that the SSM actually decreases global price and welfare stability, decreasing world prices of the commodities on which an SSM is placed, though positively affects tariff revenues for those particular commodities. While the SSM may offer a short-term solution for developing countries, its long-term outlook as a price stabilization tool is a not credible argument.
Master of Science

The thesis analyses the conditioning factors of Canada’s and Japan’s bargaining power in the multilateral trade negotiations of the Uruguay Round and Doha Development Agenda (DDA). It deals with two related research questions. The central question of this research is: to what extent and why did Canada’s and Japan’s bargaining power decrease from the Uruguay Round to the DDA? This question is related to the following auxiliary research question: what are the conditioning factors of Canada’s and Japan’s bargaining power during the Uruguay Round and DDA, and to what extent have these factors changed from one round to the other? While the thesis includes a general overview of their negotiation profiles, it analyzes specific, detailed case studies of the profiles of these countries in anti-dumping and market access/NAMA negotiations in both rounds. The hypothesis of this research is that Japan and Canada have lost bargaining power from the Uruguay Round to the DDA because of changes in the following conditioning factors: economic power; activity in country coalitions and groups; interests groups and decision-making structures on the domestic level; ideational power; and foreign policy objectives. In addition, the importance of the position of the preferences a country in the spectrum of the overall membership of multilateral trade negotiations is examined. The thesis finds that this hypothesis is partially confirmed. Canada and Japan have mainly lost bargaining power owing to a relative decrease in their economic power, a lower profile in central negotiation groups as well as coalitions, and due to domestic politics. Ideational power and especially foreign policy objectives can be considered less relevant. The thesis also finds that especially Japan’s bargaining power in anti-dumping negotiations was affected by a change of the position of its preferences within the spectrum of the overall membership of the negotiations.

In connection with the process of globalization, the importance of international trade increases not only as means of gaining welfare but as a way to solve problems. The World Trade Organization (WTO) claimed this approach in 2001 through a new trade negotiation round, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). Within DDA the WTO pledged to improve the conditions of participation of the developing countries in the multilateral trading system. Not after nine years of negotiation the round is heading to its conclusion and questions concerning the fulfilment of the development aspect are emerging. The presented thesis aims to evaluate the success of the integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading system and how the WTO contributes to it.

À l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC), le Cycle de Doha pour le Développement, lancé en 2001, achoppe sur le volet agricole, en particulier sur le dossier coton. La thèse vise à analyser, catégoriser et évaluer les impacts des positions dans les négociations en cours du Cycle de Doha pour le Développement, émanant des États membres de l'OMC, des organisations non gouvernementales, des universitaires et des institutions internationales. L'originalité de l'évaluation réalisée est accentuée par la prise en compte d'un scénario alternatif qui tient davantage compte du traitement spécial différencié en faveur des pays en développement. Face au scénario de statu quo de l'Accord de l'Uruguay Round, les scénarios actuellement proposés sont ceux du projet de modalités révisé de Falconer de décembre 2008 sans disposition particulière pour le coton, du projet de modalités révisé de Falconer de décembre 2008 avec des dispositions particulières pour le coton (position « C4 »), et des propositions respectives de l'Union Européenne et des États-Unis. Le scénario alternatif que nous proposons intègre l'amélioration de l'accès du coton des pays africains au marché chinois et le renforcement du soutien domestique dans les pays cotonniers d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre. Mais l'originalité de ce scénario additionnel procède de l'affectation des économies réalisées par les pays développés, dans la réduction de leurs soutiens domestiques, pour constituer un fonds de solidarité internationale de soutien à la filière coton des pays en développement. Par souci de comparaison, le scénario de libéralisation totale des échanges est également pris en compte, même s'il relève du domaine purement théorique. Nous avons utilisé le modèle ATPSM (Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model) pour mesurer les impacts des sept scénarios en termes de production et d'échanges internationaux. Notre évaluation intègre aussi la mesure de l'équité, en nous appuyant sur l'approche de Stiglitz et Charlton. Nos résultats montrent que le scénario alternatif augmente le prix aux producteurs de coton de 10,8%, mieux que les propositions du C4 (9,0%) et des USA (6,1%). Le scénario alternatif augmente le prix mondial (8,1%) et le volume des exportations de coton (2,3%), certes à un degré moindre que la proposition du C4 mais davantage que celle des États-Unis. Au regard du critère d'équité, le scénario alternatif est aussi favorable que les autres scénarios et mieux que le statu quo de l'Uruguay Round. Le scénario alternatif présente les éléments favorables à un compromis pour conclure le Cycle de Doha, avec des effets bénéfiques pour les pays en développement et l'introduction d'un mécanisme nouveau de solidarité internationale
Agriculture, especially cotton, causes contention in the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Development Agenda (DDA) since 2001. This study analyses and provides quantitative estimates of the likely economics impacts of various scenarios. We propose an alternative scenario further based on the principle of special and differential treatment provided to developing countries. We consider seven key scenarios in this study: (1) the Uruguay Round agreements, (2) Falconer' negotiation draft, revised in December 2008 but without special measures for cotton, (3) Similar Falconer's draft but including special measures for cotton as proposed by the C4 Group, (4) the European Union position, (5) the United States position, (6) our alternative scenario of agreements and (7) the total liberalization even if ambitious in scope. Our alternative scenario lies on the improvement of the access of African cotton into the Chinese market and on the strengthening of domestic support to cotton production in West and Central Africa. This scenario is original by considering the set up of a new fund for international solidarity through the subsidy savings implemented by developed countries. We use the Agricultural trade Policy Simulation Model (ATPSM) to evaluate the economic effect and the Stiglitz and Charlton theory of equity for equity assessment. The results showed that our alternative scenario increases the world cotton price by 8.1%, the producer price by 10.8% which is higher than the Falconer' negotiation draft with special measures for cotton (9.0%) and the United States position (6.1%). With regard to the equity criteria, our alternative scenario is as attractive as the other scenarios in comparison with the Uruguay Round agreements scenario. The alternative scenario can help to conclude the WTO-Doha Development Agenda. This scenario takes into account some key elements of a compromise between major actors of WTO, and provides provisions for and international fund to help the west and central Africa cotton sectors

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil
The problem that this Research Paper is aiming to examine is whether the Bali Agreement has successfully impacted on the consensus pitfalls and the Doha Round stalemate as shown in the background to the study.
National Bursary and Grants Agency (ANBG)

The thesis deals with processes that are under way on the international political scene focused on bringing about change in international trade rules. The aim is to analyze to what extent are taken into account interests and development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. Examination of links between international trade on one hand, and development and poverty alleviation on the other hand, has emerged as one of the top issues of development studies. They consider a more substantial integration of sub-Saharan Africa countries into flows of international trade as one of the forms of efficient support to the African development efforts. Actually, two key trade negotiations are taking place -- the Doha Development Agenda under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation, and the Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations between the European Union and the ACP countries. The negotiations have proven to be politically sensible and up to now have failed in reaching an agreement. The present thesis seeks, therefore, to explore the reasons for the failure.

I argue that a country’s preferences in an international trade negotiation ultimately reflect the domestic distribution of power across economic sectors not only in the field of the market, but also in the field of society. Fields correspond to arenas of power. Whereas in the market societal actors have economic capital (EC), their position in society determines their identity capital (IC). The more a sector is associated to the dominant conception of national identity, the higher is its IC. Both types of capital impact a sector’s political power (PP). IC manifests itself in the phase of ratification either instrumentally, when in dispute in the political field, or structurally, if embedded in state institutions. Hence, when IC is instrumentalised, only if the coalition in government espouses a social paradigm to which a sector is mostly associated it will be able to convert its level of IC into PP. As ratification shadows negotiation, constraints in this latter phase tend to be false positives in explaining the formation of the national interest. The hypothesis on the role of IC in shaping the weight of sectors’ preferences in trade negotiations is tested along with a process of theory-building through a multi-method structured-focused comparison. For the comparison, two countries were chosen as their societies are diverse in terms of identity, yet each represents a variety of the effects of IC. Brazil and India have identity-based social cleavages that are expressed in structural and instrumental terms respectively. They are key players in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) multilateral system of trade, having participated of the Doha Development Round of trade liberalisation. Brazil expressed interest for liberalisation as the mostly racially-diverse sectors had offensive demands. In turn, protectionist demands prevailed in India, as defensive sectors are associated to the dominant secularist paradigm of national identity.

The main goal of this thesis is to describe crucial moments in the development of the WTO organization by focusing on key ministerial conferences and negotiations among influential members of this organization. The main goal is therefore to evaluate results and impacts of these ministerial conferences, to describe newly applied rules of international trade in selected trade areas and changes in the negotiation power among members of newly formed informal groups within the organization structures. The thesis is divided into four chapters, each of which describes a milestone which had a significant importance in the development of the WTO organization. The first chapter, called "The Uruguay round", is mainly focusing on the key initiators and players of the whole round of negotiations, on the results and impacts on further WTO development. The second chapter, called "The third ministerial conference in Seattle", is looking for the causes of the negotiations' failure and first strong disagreements among members which were notable since then. The third chapter , called "The fourth ministerial conference in Doha", is describing the process of the Doha negotiations by focusing on the crucial players, informal groups and on issues of the highest importance to most of the WTO members, i.e. trade in agricultural and nonagricultural products. The fourth chapter, called "The July package 2008", is analyzing the content of the proposed package. Even though the WTO members were able to reach conformity in some trade areas several crucial issues have remained unsolved which led to a collapse of the July negotiations and to a non-closure of the whole Doha round.

The research paper seeks to investigate the possible ways in which African countries can maximise their benefit from the existing special and differential treatment clauses for trade in agriculture, and, then, make recommendations as to what should be the potential bargaining position of African countries with regard to future trade negotiations on agricultural trade.

The target of this diploma work is to provide the view of up to now development and present condition of economy relations between EU and Brasil (consequently between Czech Republic and Brasil), to describe and sum up the status of these relations and to point out the agents complicating the given cooperation. From the point of view of content the work is sectionalized into 5 chapters. The first one characterizes the economy of Brasil, the basic economy markers trends and the Brasil's fortes and weaknesses. The following 2 chapters tackle the juridical ambit of billateral EU and Brasil co-operation, agreements to govern their relationship, the analysis of the goods and services barter, direct foreign investments and protective restrains complicating the business. The content of the chapter No. 4 is the mutual EU - Brasil relations decsription in regard of their acting in wider aggregations, specifically in WTO and Mercosure. The last chapter is focused on the mutual czech and brasilian trade relations characteristic.

This thesis investigates the nature and role of negotiating coalitions in pursuing development-oriented agendas during the WTO Doha Round. The thesis examines: (1) the Group of 20 (G-20) and Group of 33 (G-33) in agriculture negotiations; (2) the Core Group and Group of 90 (G-90) in the new 'Singapore' issues; and (3) the Coalitions on TRIPS and Public Health (CTPH), African Group (AG) and Coalition of Developing Countries (CDC) in TRIPS and public health negotiations. This thesis suggests that the core arguments of the above coalitions reflected a particular frame of reference linked to their agendas and that the coalitions assumed certain types of leadership that evolved over time. An instrumental frame prescribed material incentives-based arguments, which relates to the non-discrimination and reciprocity norms under the liberal trade principle, while a normative frame advocated normative values-based arguments, which relates to the flexibilities, special and differential treatment, and sustainable development norms under the developmental principle. The thesis finds that the G-20 used mixed instrumental-normative frames and exhibited a formidable strategic-based leadership that developed innovative solutions to create mutual gains. The G-33 used a normative frame and exerted a knowledge-based leadership that used reasoned arguments as a moral justification and later evolved to a strategic-based leadership. The Core Group/G-90 used a predominantly instrumental frame and demonstrated a structural-based leadership using collective coercive power and later adapted to strategic-based leadership. The CTPH used a predominantly normative frame that exhibited a knowledge-based leadership in negotiating for the Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health (DTPH). The AG and CDC used a similar normative frame as the CTPH, but could not develop into a strategic-based leadership in negotiating TRIPS flexibilities rules. This thesis also examines the coalitions' role in the rule-development process. Many negotiating coalitions attempted to influence the mode of trade negotiation by incorporating socio-humanitarian or socio-economic objectives; thus expanding the traditional trade negotiations that used reciprocal concessions and primarily concentrated on liberal trade objectives. The thesis finds that the G-20 was successful in maintaining an agenda to discipline trade distortions, but had to exchange concessions on specific agriculture rules and provide concessions on manufacturing. The G-33 succeeded in inserting special trade provisions for food security purposes in the agriculture modalities, but had to exchange concessions with agriculture exporters by accepting more stringent rules on flexibilities. The CTPH ensured a developmental-friendly interpretation of TRIPS flexibilities, but the AG and CDC had to accept the demand by the major powers for stringent rules on TRIPS flexibilities. The Core Group and G-90 were effective in opposing the inclusion of three new 'Singapore' issues in negotiations and succeeded in developing trade facilitation modalities and rules reflecting a balance between liberal trade and developmental objectives. The evidence suggests that coalitions of developing economies were relatively successful in re-emphasising developmental objectives during agenda-setting and modalities-setting processes. However, most of the developing economy negotiating coalitions were drawn into traditional bargaining through the exchange of concessions and consequently had to downgrade their original development-oriented objectives during the rule-making and near deal-making processes.

博士
東吳大學
法律學系
93
Instead of being like “splendid isolation” and contradictory, the relationship between trade and human rights, as a matter of fact, is mutually enforceable, undividable and complementary. The linkage between trade and human rights can be manifested in the context of development. In a recent report of the WTO, in responding to is open trade a threat to human rights, it was claimed that “in fact, the case for freeing trade is made very definitely in terms of enhancing human welfare – nowhere better than in the preamble to the Marrakesh Agreement that established the WTO.” It was reassured that “trade is a mean to an end, not an end in itself.” The ultimate end of trade is to enhancing human welfare, namely development, in terms of law, realization of human rights. Under the above basis, the purpose of this dissertation is to observe the actual and possible interaction between trade and human rights in the legal framework of the WTO law, with the realistic and functional approach. The dissertation first analyzes the development policy from GATT era to the establishment of the WTO, and the declaration of Doha Development Agenda. Further, the effectiveness and implication of these development policies are evaluated and studied. The study shows that the real achievement of the WTO development policies can not be attained without the regards of human rights. This normative principle can also be acquired from the practices regarding development of the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Community. In the next part of the dissertation, some specific issues are studied for discovering the interaction between trade and human rights in terms of realization of fair development and the enhancement of human welfare. These specific issues are GATT’s general exception clause and its function to adopt human rights value to WTO framework, the interaction between trade and labour standards, the balance between protection to paten under TRIPS agreement and public health, and the role of the right to food to food security under the Agreement of Agriculture. In chapter 5, regarding the function of the GATT general exception clause, it is discovered the clause plays an important role to adjust free trade and other values of non-trade concern, especially the value of human rights. In the sub-paragraphs of general exception, measures necessary (a) to protect public morals, (b) to protect human, animal or plant life or health, and measures relating (e) to the products of prison labour, (g) to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources are competent to be normative basis for fundamental human rights such as right to life, right to health, labour rights, environmental rights in the situation necessary to ensure the fair development of Members. In chapter 6, regarding the long lasting issue on trade and labour between developed and developing Members, it is found that the real development of Members can not been attained by fully ignorance of labour standards, although incompliance to labour standards seems to gain some economic growth in the short term, it would become the vicious circle of underdevelopment. Furthermore, deviation to core labour standards is not only violation to jus cogens, customary international law or general principles, but cause serious distortion to fair development of Members in the context of the WTO. Thus, the inclusion of labour clause, at least the core labour standards, is necessary to the stable and long term development of the WTO. In chapter 7, regarding the imbalance between the protection to paten holder and public health in TRIPS Agreement, with the teleological interpretation to relevant provision of TRIPS Agreement and the Declaration on “TRIPS Agreement and Public Health” the normative basis for adjusting the protection to paten right and the right to health is found and would be of assurance to human welfare of Members. In chapter 8, regarding the issues of food security of the Agreement on Agriculture in the context of right to food, although the positive influence of Agreement on Agriculture on food security of developing Members can not be found, due to the existing unfair supports to agriculture of developed Members and critical important role of agriculture to developing Members, any possible or potential varieties caused by the implementation of the Agreement on Agriculture may pose a threat to the situation of food security in developing Members. In order to maintain the stability of the WTO framework and to ensure development of Members, the adoption of right to food value into the Agricultural Agreement would manifest the conditions of food security in developing Members. Further, by this approach the Agreement on Agriculture can really plays a role of bring adequate food and development for all the Members of the WTO. In conclusion, the relationship between trade and human rights is not contradictory but complementary. By manifesting the well interaction between them in the framework of the WTO, the human welfare and development of Members can effectively assured.