Analytical Note, March 2013

This note provides an overview of the EPA negotiations. It illustrates the fact that the same critical contentious issues persist in the EPAs across various regional blocs. It also highlights the concerns of the highest political authorities of ACP States regarding the EPAs and the inherent dangers for regional integration, industrialization, and the development of ACP States. Activity is likely to increase further given the high probability that Europe will remove countries from being recipients of EU preferences provided under the EC market access regulation 1528/2007 if they have not signed or ratified their EPA by 1 October 2014.

Analytical Notes, January 2013

Benchmarks to ‘further strengthen, streamline and operationalize’ the 2002 LDC Accession Guidelines have been developed. The following conclusions can be made regarding these benchmarks:

Analytical Notes, June 2012

One of the main contentious issues in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and African countries is the level of trade liberalization which Europe is asking for. This issue is certainly one of the most critical for Africa. At its heart is the question of whether the elimination of tariffs for a majority of tariff lines in the EPAs will destroy local industries and their productive capacities as well as the extent to which regional trade may be disrupted.

Analytical Note, December 2011

This Analytical Note provides an overview of the following: issues at stake in MC8 for developing countries and key messages for Ministers; the state of play including the main events that took place in the production of the ‘Elements for Political Guidance’ text; the legal status of the Chairman’s Statement as the outcome document of the Ministerial; important process issues to be mindful of during the Ministerial; a detailed look at the issues in the ‘Elements for Political Guidance’ text; and a paragraph by paragraph analysis of the ‘Elements’ text.

Informal note? November 2011

This note includes a non-exhaustive list of implementation issues that would be very beneficial for developing countries if they can be delivered.

Analytical Note, November 2011

This Note is an analysis of the draft waiver decision submitted by the Chairman of the CTS to Ministers for adoption at the 8th Ministerial Conference. This is essentially a waiver from the most-favoured nation treatment clause (Article II. 1) in GATS to allow Members to provide preferential and more favourable treatment to services and services suppliers of LDCs. Two main issues have arisen in the draft waiver text. Firstly the types of preferences covered by the waiver, in order to be effective, needs to go beyond market access measures. The second issue is that of rules of origin. There is need to clarify the meaning of rules of origin in the waiver.

Analytical Note, November 2011

The LDC Package was proposed by the WTO Director General, in his capacity as Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) Chair in May 2011 for early harvesting at the Eighth Ministerial Conference (MC8) in December 2011. Since then, these negotiations have run into problems due to the resistance of the United States. Nevertheless, the LDC Package enjoys broad support from other WTO members and the LDC Group in the WTO is continuing to push for results of the package at MC8. This paper provides i) a brief of the issues within the LDC package: duty-free quota-free market access (DFQF); rules of origin in relation to DFQF; the services waiver; and cotton ii) why the LDC Package should be early harvested and iii) proposed language for insertion into the outcome document of MC8.

Analytical Note, November 2011

This study provides a simple cost-benefit analysis of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between African countries and the European Union. It compares the costs of signing an EPA - measured as tariff revenue losses, versus the “gains” of signing an EPA - measured as duties African countries would avoid paying if they were to export to the EU market under the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme. The major question therefore is whether the tariff revenue losses resulting from the EPA outweigh the duties that countries would have to pay in a non-EPA scenario? Do the losses of EPAs outweigh the “gains”?

Analytical Notes, June 2011

1)  Key Overview Paper: Present Situation of the WTO Doha Talks and Comments on the 21 April 2011 Documents

WTO released on 21 April 2011, a 600-page package providing an overview of the last 10 years of Doha negotiations. This paper is an analysis of this overall package. Although Doha started as a “Development Agenda” with a pledge that developing countries’ interests would be at the centre, ironically there is hardly any development content left in the Doha elements. The agricultural deal has side-stepped the major issue of subsidies by developed countries. Special and Differential Treatment (S&D) for developing countries such as the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) is practically inoperable and ineffective. There are no results in cotton. In NAMA, the packaged is imbalanced and problematic in terms of the shrinking of developing countries’ policy space to carry out much needed industrialisation. The services report puts a ‘necessity test’ back in as an option in the domestic regulation negotiations. Key areas of interest to developing countries have been sidelined – Article XXIV; S&D and Implementation issues.

Analytical Note, April 2011

This document provides a paragraph by paragraph analysis of the draft domestic regulation texts which are currently being discussed at the WTO’s Working Party on Domestic Regulation (services negotiations). As long as countries have opened and ‘bound’ at the WTO certain services sectors and modes of supply, the disciplines being negotiated on Licensing Requirements (LR); Licensing Procedures (LP); Qualification Requirements (QR); Qualification Procedures (QP) and Technical Standards (TS) apply in those sectors and modes. These disciplines stipulate that countries’ measures relating to LR; LP; QR; QP; and TS should be ‘pre-established’, based on ‘objective and transparent criteria’ and ‘relevant’ to the supply of the services. They should in principle not be ‘disguised restrictions on trade’; they should be ‘as simple as possible’ etc. The analysis gives an overview of what is at stake, provides paragraph by paragraph comments on the negotiating texts, and also suggests some recommendations.

Analytical Note, March 2011 The European Union (EU) uses a plethora of policy instruments to protect its agricultural sector and to ensure that European farmers, despite having higher production costs, are still able to continue production for both the European and export markets. This paper provides a snapshot of these instruments and also gives an overview of the new instruments that are increasingly being used resulting from the on-going reforms in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Analytical Note, March 2011

The EU has been undertaking reform in its Common Agricultural Policy. Nevertheless, subsidies to EU agricultural producers are continuing. The major change is that 93% of these supports are now provided in the form of direct aid payments to producers. On these grounds, the EU is arguing in the WTO that its supports are no longer trade distorting, since they are not tied to farmers’ production. In some sectors such as cereals, these direct payments compensating EU farmers directly have had the effect of drastically reducing domestic prices in the EU, whilst also making these EU subsidised produce ‘competitive’ on the world market.

Analytical Note, November 2011

Trade trends are changing quite rapidly for Africa. A careful analysis of Africa’s export statistics reveals startling facts regarding the markets that are most important for Africa today, and in the years to come.

Analytical Note, November 2010

The discussion on WTO compatibility in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and ACP countries has so far been very narrowly defined, and largely from the perspective of the European Union. This Analytical Note presents a matrix providing a comparison of the EPA commitments the EU is asking ACP countries for, and treatment of these issues in the WTO, including where appropriate, the type of flexibilities available for the different developing country groupings at the WTO.

Analytical Note, November 2009

The Special Safeguard Provision (SSG) in the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture is an instrument that is regularly used by a number of developed countries to protect their agricultural sector. Most developing countries do not have access to the SSG. The Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) has been proposed by a large number of developing countries in the Doha Round so that they too can avail of a similar and an even more effective safeguard mechanism than the SSG. Unfortunately, the conditions for the SSM have been so diluted as to make it difficult to use, and in many aspects less effective than the SSG. This paper provides a detailed comparison between the two instruments.

 click here to read

Analytical Note, November 2009

This paper begins by highlighting the frequency of price declines experienced by developing countries. It then touches on the use of the price-based Special Safeguard Provision (SSG) by developed countries.

The paper then looks at the conditionalities of the WTO Agriculture Chair's December 2008 text (TN/AG/W/4/Rev.4). These include exclusion of en route shipments from the price-based SSM coverage; the trigger and remedy, and the omission to take into account the value declines in ad valorem duties when prices drop; the cross-check; and the exclusion of preferential trade from SSM coverage.

An analysis of these conditionalities is provided. Some of these clauses, if agreed upon, will severely curtail countries' ability to invoke the price-based SSM. In addition, once invoked, the remedies, as they are currently drafted, are not likely to be effective in shielding domestic producers from price volatilities.

 click here to read

Analytical Note, November 2009

This paper examines the conditionalities and their implications for the effectiveness of the volume-based SSM in the December 2008 Agriculture Chair's Modalities. These conditionalities include the trigger level; limits on the remedies and remedy caps; limits on the number of tariff lines that can go beyond the Uruguay Round bound rates; the cross-check; ‘on/off' periods of SSM application; treatment for seasonal and perishable products; exclusion of preferential trade from SSM coverage; exclusion of negligible trade; and pro-rating clauses in calculating the preceding 3-year volume imports. The paper then makes recommendations on how these clauses can be changed so that the SSM can be a more effective instrument for developing countries.

 click here to read

Analytical Note, November 2009

The paper gives an overview of the trends in different groupings of developing countries' agricultural import surges, as well as the import surge statistics for a sample of 56 developing countries. This is followed by a look at the products for which import surges are most frequently occurring. The final section of the paper highlights two individual country examples of import surges: poultry into Ghana and rice into Senegal.

 click here to read

June 2010

The document contains a matrix of 21 contentious issues pertaining to the goods negotiations in the EPAs. For each issue, the ‘best’ language (i.e. least damaging language) from the various EPA texts is identified. The problems posed by these contentious issues are then highlighted, and some recommendations provided.

April 2010

 A large part of the discomfort of many ACP countries vis-à-vis the EPAs have to do with what are now known as ‘contentious issues’ or ‘unresolved issues’. Negotiations on these issues took place between the EU and some African sub-regions in 2009, with agreements on some of these issues emerging for SADC and ESA countries.

This note analyses the results of the negotiations on the standstill clause; modification of tariff commitments provision; duties and taxes on exports; the infant industry clause; prohibition of quantitative restrictions; the food security clause; free circulation of goods and definition of the ‘parties’.  These form only part of the list of the overall basket of contentious issues, but they are those negotiated in 2009.

March 2010

The EPAs provide the wrong development model for Africa, and will jeopardize African countries’ development and regional integration prospects, rather than support them. Until now, only 10 out of 47 African countries have signed the EPA – most are dragging out the negotiations because they are reluctant or are resisting signing, due to their anti-developmental content. The problematic conditions of the EPAs include zero tariffs on 70-80% of all tariff lines; no increase in any tariffs; weak safeguard; prohibition of new export taxes and duties and the pressure from the EU to launch into liberalization of other issues such as services, investment, competition and procurement.

Analytical Note, December 2009

This analytical note looks at how MRV metrics and modalities in relation to paragraphs 1(b)(i) and (ii) of the UNFCCC Bali Action Plan (BAP) can be made operational in ways that reflect the primary sustainable development concerns and perspectives of developing country Parties to the UNFCCC. It suggests that such metrics and modalities have to take into account existing modalities with a view towards further enhancing the effective implementation of the UNFCCC by all Parties.

Analytical Notes, October 2009

This Analytical Note updates a 2006 South Centre Analytical Note (SC/AN/TDP/SV/11) ‘The Development Dimension of the GATS Domestic Regulation Negotiations’, which discusses the implications of the GATS Article VI: 4 disciplines on domestic regulation for developing countries.

The aspects that are most problematic in the domestic regulations draft text (20 March 2009 version) for developing countries include: various provisions that operate as necessity tests, and provisions that could limit countries right to regulate, for example, the pre-establishment criteria; and that countries’ regulatory measures should be ‘transparent’, ‘objective’ and ‘relevant’.

Analytical Note, August 2009

This Analytical Note examines flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and possible technology transfer approaches under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as among the possible modalities that developing countries can use to obtain access to and affect transfers of climate-relevant technologies. It looks at the possibilities and challenges that need to be addressed in this regard.

Analytical Note,  May 2009 

Currently, the EU and Central American countries are negotiating the Free Trade Agreement. The European Commission commissioned a Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment (TSIA) which is estimated to be completed by August 2009. On 6 April 2009, the draft interim technical report was published (in English). This paper assesses the draft interim TSIA and its annexes. The main conclusions are; main sustainability issues in Central America identified in the report are not sufficiently addressed such as regional integration (economic), unemployment (social) and deforestation (environmental); the results of the CGE model, and the data input and scenarios overstate the benefits of the FTA

South Centre Analytical Note, June 2009

This Analytical Note explores the options available to developing countries in negotiating agreements establishing Free Trade Areas (FTAs) involving a trade in services component with the European Union (EU). It examines the issues that are challenging for development in the EU proposals which include amongst other things the EU negotiating template, Mode 4 limitations, the domestic regulatory framework and the MFN clause. Secondly it identifies the options available to developing countries. These include cooperation arrangements with the EU, respect for regional initiatives, recognition of special treatment for LDCs and retaining the GATS architecture and flexibilities.

South Centre Analytical Note - March 2009

The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) being negotiated between the EU and Africa pose a major challenge for African countries since they are essentially free trade agreements. As such, the issue of development benchmarks has often been discussed. Many realize the need to stringently monitor the implementation of EPAs where these are signed, and to put in place brakes on the liberalization process if the desired development goals are not being attained. This paper proposes three concrete development benchmark indicators, drawing on the EU’s own indicators when graduating countries out of their Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) schemes: the Development Index; Export Concentration/Diversification; and Import Concentration.

South Centre Analytical Note - January 2009

This Analytical Note looks at the level and delivery vehicles of public financing for climate change actions in developing countries from developed country Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (i.e. the Parties listed in Annex I of the Convention). It argues that such public financing from Annex I Parties as is available falls far short of what is needed, shows preference for non-UNFCCC delivery vehicles, and is essentially double-counted as compliance by these Annex I Parties with their official development assistance (ODA) and climate financing commitments. It concludes that existing modalities under which climate financing is being provided by developed countries have the effect of weakening the UNFCCC in terms of its role as a catalyst and vehicle for climate financing that is consistent with and supports theobjectives of the UNFCCC.

South Centre Analytical Note - December 2008

The issue of ‘WTO Compatibility’ of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has been intensely debated ever since the days of the GATT. RTAs are governed by Article XXIV in the GATT. The Article however does not have a development dimension. This paper argues for the need to insert strong Special and Differential Treatment clauses into Article XXIV in order to be legally consistent with GATS V. It also looks at the ways in which some WTO Members, especially developed countries, have protected their markets in their RTAs. These are grounds for developing countries to legitimately open up less fully.

South Centre Analytical Note - November 2008

The Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) is often quoted as one of the main controversial points that lead to the failure to the WTO mini-ministerial process in July 2008. Technical divergences relate to key aspects of the design and operation of the mechanism but also strong political divergences among exporters and importers. The purpose of this note is to explain the rationale and origins of the SSM and the main contentious issues in the current debate.

South Centre Analytical Note - October 2008

This Analytical Note follows up the study on stakeholder perspectives on the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) prepared by the South Centre entitled “Reshaping the International Development Cooperation Architecture: Perspectives on a Strategic Development Role for the Development Cooperation Forum” and provides more in-depth developing country perspectives on the DCF on the basis of four country papers prepared by research partners based in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa.

South Centre Analytical Note - September 2008

This Analytical Note presents the findings of a research project undertaken by the South Centre designed to gather insights and perspectives from various stakeholders – including developing country governments and civil society. It then presents some recommendations regarding the vision, roles, institutional architecture, and functions of the newly-created Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), highlighting the need for the DCF to be a strategic forum for multilateral discussion of development cooperation issues in order to enhance the role of the UN system in development cooperation policymaking and implementation.

South Centre Analytical Note - October 2008

This paper outlines the main events which took place during the WTO’s July mini-Ministerial. It goes on to provide a discussion of the key issues that were important in that meeting – agriculture, cotton, the non-agriculture market access negotiations, as well as systemic process concerns. It concludes with some thoughts on the challenges confronting developing countries – high food prices, livelihoods and climate change, and the implications these challenges pose for the WTO. 

South Centre Analytical Note - September 2008

This Analytical Note stresses that both sustainable development and climate change are interlinked. Climate change will have impacts on the pace and progress of developing countries’ efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives, while achieving such objectives form the fundamental premise upon which developing countries are undertaking their actions to address climate change. Sustainable development is a legitimate aspiration of developing countries whose populations are affected by a wide range of poverty- and climate change-related impacts.

This South Centre Analytical Note provides a background and discussion on the history of the Mercado Común del Sur – Mercosur’s regional economic and political cooperation and the insights it can provide to developing countries seeking to build greater integration in their region. Analysis focuses on the evolution of the integration process, overcoming certain challenges and enhancing political cooperation in South America.

South Centre Analytical Note - September 2008

The purpose of this analytical note is to highlight the inherent imbalances interim EPA texts contain with regard to development assistance. Its analysis, furthermore, can provide guidance to regions and countries that need to draft language regarding financial cooperation in their EPAs so that they strengthen EPA legal language in that respect.

This Analytical Note looks at the new dynamic of capital flows from the South to the North arising from unprecedented levels of capital reserve accumulation by the South. It looks at some of the reasons for such capital accumulation – pointing to the perceived need by developing countries to self-insure themselves against financial crises. It then looks at various ways in which financial crises could be prevented by developing countries and concludes by stressing the need for this new dynamic to be reflected in both international economic arrangements and in terms of ensuring that developmental gains by developing countries are obtained.

South Centre Analytical Note - August 2008

The paper analyses the positive impact of Decentralized Renewable Energy Technologies on enhancing climate change adaptation capacity in developing countries facing climate change-related increasing hazards. The paper concludes with some recommendations for implementing decentralized renewable energy technologies for climate adaptation in developing countries.

South Centre Analytical Note - August 2008

This South Centre Analytical Note looks at the 25 July 2008 final consultative draft text of the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) that is expected to be adopted by participants at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, from September 2-4, 2008.

It argues that the text of the AAA sets the participation of developing countries within the framework and the norms set by developed country donors and will therefore end up strengthening the OECD-DAC framework and its associated governance structure, and does not suggest any inherent change in the governance structure of the international aid system which continues to be donor-driven and reflects donors’ economic and policy agendas.

South Centre Analytical Note - July 2008

This Analytical Note looks at the administrative costs involved with having the GEF as an operating entity for the climate change funds for developing countries (i.e. the Least-Developed Country Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund) established by the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties under the UNFCCC’s financial mechanism. It lays out that the administrative costs charged by the GEF (both in terms of the secretariat and the various implementing agencies), using GEF documents in the public domain, for administering these climate change funds.

South Centre Analytical Note - May 2008

This South Centre Analytical Note looks at the 18 March 2008 first consultative draft text of the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) that is expected to be adopted by participants at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, in September 2008. It argues that the text of the AAA sets the participation of developing countries within the framework and the norms set by developed country donors and will therefore end up strengthening the OECD-DAC framework and its associated governance structure, and does not suggest any inherent change in the governance structure of the international aid system which continues to be donor-driven and reflects donors’ economic and policy agendas.

 South Centre Analytical Note - July 2008

This Analytical Note evaluates how far the commitments contained in the 2002 Monterrey Consensus were fulfilled. It also examines the adequacy of the Monterrey Consensus as a framework for guiding international policy decisions and actions in current circumstances, and then outlines the significant changes and developments that have occurred since Monterrey that call for a fresh approach to addressing financing for development issues. Finally, the Analytical Note seeks to identify policy and institutional areas where the world community needs to be more ambitious in its approach, decisions, and actions at the UN International Review Conference on Financing for Development that will take place in Doha at the end of November 2008.

South Centre Analytical Note - May 2008

This South Centre Analytical Note looks at the donor-driven agenda in the reform of public procurement – the rules that guide government purchasing of goods, works and services – as one of major components in the good governance agenda being incorporated by donors into their aid programmes. This Analytical Note stresses that such an agenda vis-à-vis government procurement not only restricts the flexibility of developing country governments to use public procurement as a policy tool for development, but also has significant consequences for local firms that rely on government contracts.

South Centre Analytical Note - May 2008

This South Centre Analytical Note stresses that the provision of financing to developing countries to implement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is required of developed countries under the Convention. But such financing has not yet been provided. This Analytical Note suggests that the COP directly operate the Convention’s financial mechanism by setting up a Climate Change Fund (CCF) that would fully respond to the requirements of the Convention as part of the global community’s response to climate change.

Analytical Note - May 2008

This Analytical note gives an overview of the provisions on agriculture of the interim EPA initialed at the end of 2007 between the EU et 35 ACP countries. A better understanding of the challenges that faces sub-Saharan agriculture in its expansion as well as the implentation of measures that would help it in that sense are fundamental for the formulation of a positive agenda that would appear as a chapter of the EPA on agriculture. This document is in French but will soon be available in English.

This South Centre Analytical Note suggests that the modalities for the “measurable, reportable, and verifiable” (MRV) conditions under operative paragraph 1(b)(i) and (ii) of the Bali Action Plan should be the existing MRV modalities with respect to mitigation commitments, financing, technology transfer, and capacity-building under the Convention. 

South Centre Analytical Note - May 2008

At the close of 2007, the EU completed a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Cariforum countries.  The EPA with the Cariforum is comprehensive in the sense that it extends to trade in goods, services and all the new generation issues including government procurement, competition law, and others. This analytical note provides an overview of key provisions related to trade in services in the Cariforum EPA text and comments on the possible implications for other ACP countries.

Analytical Note - February 2008

This South Centre Analytical Note stresses that addressing the challenges of development and climate change requires an integrated approach. Both the trade and climate regimes have a role to play. In each case, a development perspective must guide discussions to ensure an outcome that advances the needs and aspirations of developing countries and their peoples. The shift to a low-carbon economy requires a range of measures to support developing countries, and sufficient development policy space to allow those countries to tailor approaches to their national contexts. In particular, developed countries must fulfill their existing international obligations in both the trade and climate regimes, and ensure that their development-related rhetoric is matched by the reality of their actions. This paper identifies a number of areas where developed countries are falling short in promoting development-oriented outcomes on trade and climate issues, and where further efforts should be made.

South Centre Analytical Note - May 2006

SYNOPSIS

This South Centre Analysis provides a discussion of the concept of corporate responsibility for development, existing initial initiatives in this area, and the need for UNCTAD to ensure that its mandate coming from UNCTAD XI to undertake work in this area results in substantive outcomes.

 click here to download 

South Centre Analytical Note - February 2006

SYNOPSIS

The South Centre Analysis of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration evaluates the developments in the Doha Work Programme since the launch of the Round, examines the implications of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration and identifies some important strategic issues for developing countries that need to be considered in subsequent negotiation.

 click here to download