WTO Members
Review Trans-Pacific Partnership at 100th Session of Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs)
WTO
members considered the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) at the landmark 100th session of the
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) on 21 June. Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
Director-General, said the Committee’s work is especially valuable as trading
relationships become more complex under new agreements.
"There
has always been a close relationship between RTAs and the multilateral trading
system," Director-General Okonjo-Iweala said at
the Committee's 100th session since it was first established by the General
Council in 1996. "The work done by the Committee helps us understand how
this relationship is evolving and is a regular reminder of how important it is
for RTAs and the multilateral trading system to work towards the same
goals," she said, noting that over 190 RTAs have been reviewed in the
Committee.
All
164 WTO members are party to at least one RTA and estimates suggest that close
to 20% of global merchandise trade occurs between RTA partners on the basis of
preferential tariff rates. Over 75% of global trade, on the other hand, occurs
on most-favoured-nation (MFN) terms,
underscoring the continuing commercial importance of multilateral agreements at
the WTO.
"RTAs
today go beyond market access in goods and services and related WTO
rules," the Director-General said. "The work of the Committee in
considering these more complex trading relationships is especially valuable.
Indeed, today you will be considering one of the largest and most complex RTAs,
the CPTPP," she said. The full speech can be accessed here.
The CPTPP is
currently in force for seven of the 11 parties. It entered into force on 30
December 2018 for Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore
and then on 14 January 2019 for Viet Nam. Singapore liberalized all its tariffs
at entry into force while New Zealand will do so by 2024. Other parties will
liberalize at least 95.9% of their tariff lines by 2039 at the latest.
Moreover, CPTPP commitments in trade in services are in general broader than
those under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services. The CPTPP also
includes commitments in investment, government procurement, intellectual
property, competition, state-owned enterprises, environment, labour, electronic commerce, and small and medium
enterprises.
New
Zealand and Japan introduced the Agreement at the meeting on behalf of the
CPTPP parties. They said the CPTPP is a trailblazer at the forefront of many
issues on the wider multilateral trade agenda. They noted the parties'
continuing commitment to cooperate on economic recovery in the aftermath of the
COVID-19 pandemic. They also reported that the parties decided on 2 June 2021
to start the accession process for the United Kingdom. Several members took the
floor to welcome the Agreement and thank the parties for their replies to
written questions.
The
Committee chair, Ambassador Cleopa Kilonzo Mailu of Kenya, said the
consideration of the CPTPP had allowed members to clarify a number of questions
and thanked the parties for their responses.
The
chair further noted that 53 RTAs have still not been notified to the WTO. In
addition, there are 72 RTAs involving WTO members and 34 involving non-members
for which a factual presentation has to be prepared, counting goods and
services separately. The factual presentation for six other services agreements
are on hold pending the negotiations of services commitments (of these, one
involves non-members). The steep increase in pending factual presentations is
due to the new trade agreements between the United Kingdom and its partners
following the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
The
Chair said he had held consultations with delegations for which the RTA factual
consideration remains delayed due to the lack of comments or data from the
members involved and hoped that the outstanding information would be provided
soon.