EYES OPENED DURING INDIA VISIT

Remove

Executive Director Stephen Jacobi read out on the recent Delhi business mission, published earlier by Newsroom.

read more

Sustaining prosperity: Asia-Pacific business supporting the WTO

by | Apr 29, 2019 | Trade Working Blog

Remove

Senior Asia-Pacific business leaders have issued a strong call to support and reform the World Trade Organisation, recognising the critical role that the global rules-based trading system plays in sustaining prosperity for all countries, businesses and communities.

At the initiative of ABAC New Zealand, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), which met last week in Jakarta, has issued a strong and unified statement of support for the WTO.  The statement emphasises the crucial role of the global rules-based system in levelling the playing field, giving a seat at the table to even small players in the global system, sustaining growth and creating opportunities for businesses both large and small, and in emerging as well as advanced economies – reflecting the diversity in economic size, levels of development and trade interests across the APEC region.

It is surely no coincidence that the past year has seen a sharp uptick in protectionist action around the world, just as we feel the ripples of a loss of momentum in global trade and economic growth.”

Reform and modernise existing WTO rules and procedures

The statement also acknowledges the need to reform and modernise some of the existing rules and operating procedures, which are of course now nearly a quarter of a century old (and in the case of GATT rules, over seventy years old).  In particular, the statement calls on APEC economies to complete the unfinished business of the Doha Round (including on agriculture and services), enhance transparency, update the rules to reflect 21st-century business models including e-commerce and digital trade, and address non-tariff barriers (including by applying ABAC’s Cross-Cutting Principles on NTBs  the development of which was also led by ABAC New Zealand).  

Dispute settlement in crisis

The statement emphasises the need to address the currently impasse in the dispute settlement system.  The crisis in the Appellate Body, which comes to a head in December of this year as the number of AB members drops below the functional bare minimum, is deeply troubling for New Zealand – which has of course been able to use the WTO dispute settlement system to defend our interests even against much larger players including the US, Indonesia, Canada, the EU and Australia.  Keeping the dispute settlement system functioning is now a matter of the greatest urgency.

ABAC unity in the face of a worrying loss of momentum in global growth

The significance of the ABAC statement should not be underestimated.  The ABAC-wide ‘call to action’ transcends some of the differences that have been only too evident at the political level on the WTO and global trade more broadly (see for example our previous blog here), reflecting the compelling case for sustaining the global rules-based system for business.   

Minds were no doubt focused at the ABAC meeting by gloomy recent forecasts for the global economy, including the IMF’s prediction that global GDP would grow by just 3.3 percent, down from the 3.5 percent that had been forecast in January (this would make it the weakest growth level since the Global Financial Crisis, and the third time that the IMF has downgraded the outlook in the past six months).  In a similar vein, the WTO has forecast world merchandise trade to drop to 2.6 percent this year – by comparison to last year’s forecast for this year of a 4.4 percent growth rate.  It is surely no coincidence that the past year has seen a sharp uptick in protectionist action around the world, just as we feel the ripples of a loss of momentum in global trade and economic growth.

The path ahead will no doubt be rocky, but for a small, distant, open, globally-connected economy like New Zealand, the case to press on, despite the challenges, is a no-brainer.   It is heartening that this view is widely shared by our friends across the Asia-Pacific business community.

This post was prepared by Stephanie Honey, the Associate Director of the New Zealand International Forum and New Zealand’s WTO agriculture negotiator for several years of the Doha Round.

 

REGISTER WITH TRADE WORKS

Register to stay up to date with latest news, as well as saving and discussing articles you’re interested in.

 

Remove

 

Latest News

EYES OPENED DURING INDIA VISIT

Published by Newsroom on 6 September 2023 Stephen Jacobi reports on the recent business delegation to India. Every country has its contrasts and a subcontinent of 1.4 billion with thousands of years of history has more than most.  Today’s India can reach the...

Large business delegation bound for India

MEDIA RELEASE - Tuesday 22 August, 2023 Fifty business representatives will leave later this week bound for Delhi, making it one of the largest delegations ever to head for India. The delegation, comprising members and senior leaders of five business organisations,...

India and New Zealand: The next innings

As published in the NZ Herald, 18 August 2023 By Stephen Jacobi As a trade mission prepares to depart for Delhi, Stephen Jacobi of the New Zealand International Business Forum considers the prospects for growing two-way trade and investment between India and New...

CRUNCH TIME FOR CPTPP

As published in the NZ Herald, 18 August 2023. By Stephen Jacobi, Executive Director, NZ International Business Forum. Following the Ministers’ meeting in Auckland, what is the outlook for CPTPP as the world’s most ambitious free trade agreement? When Ministers...

CER CELEBRATES A RUBY ANNIVERSARY

The Australia-New Zealand Leadership, the semi-annual gathering of Ministers and business leaders, has been described as a “successful symbol of trans-Tasman togetherness[1]”.  And the togetherness vibe was certainly present when the Forum gathered in Wellington...

CRUNCH TIME FOR CPTPP

This post was published by Hinrich Foundation on 18 July 2023. Following the Ministers’ meeting in Auckland, what is the outlook for CPTPP as the world’s most ambitious free trade agreement ? By Stephen Jacobi When APEC Trade Ministers gathered for their annual...