The EU’s Trade Policy in the Doha Development Agenda – An Interim Assessment on Rules Negotiations

Lin, Chiang-feng, and Wu, Po-Kuan. (2007) The EU’s Trade Policy in the Doha Development Agenda – An Interim Assessment on Rules Negotiations. In: UNSPECIFIED, Montreal, Canada. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

At Doha Ministerial Conference in 2001, WTO members agreed to launch new trade negotiations on a range of subjects and other work, including issues concerning the implementation of the present agreements. Various issues in the WTO Doha Development Agenda were dealt with in the form of ‘single undertaking’ which include the trade remedy rules, i.e., anti-dumping and subsidies rules. The EU, being the largest regional economy in the world, was no doubt a heavyweight in the Doha multilateral trade negotiations and so was its trade policy of great weight. To date, the EU had put forward a total of 10 submissions to clarify and improve the AD Agreement and the SCM Agreement at the end of 2006, and the submissions revealed the EU’s attitude toward the Rules negoation; not aggressive but prudent and cautious. While Doha Round seemed doomed and gloomy, the EU, on the other hand, launched its new trade policy, the ‘Global Europe’ framework in 2006 pursuant to the goals set up by the conclusions of Lisbon European Council. The new EU’s trade policy is comprised of a wider array of trade issues, aiming at maintaining its global competitiveness, and in light of the growing fragmentation and complexity of the process of production and supply chains as well as the growth of major new economic actors, particularly in Asia, there was a need for a revision of the EU Trade Defence Instruments (TDI) . A “Green Paper” on TDI was thus drafted and presented for public consultation by the Commission at the end of 2006, which is intended to make sure EU TDI fit in the trend of globalization as well as the European multinational corporations' competiveness in the new economic context. This paper intends to explore if the possible trade policy adjustment in the EU TDI will also facilitate to resolve the discrepancy between the EU and its counterparts in the Rules negotiations and provide a solid basis for the conclusion thereof. Section II of the article presents the ongoing DDA negotiations, inter alia, Rules negotiations. Section III will probe the negotiation objective and issues that EU concern by examining its submissions to the Negotiating Group on Rules as well as its implementation assessment. The EU’s new trade policy, in particular, that on the newly released “Green Paper” on the TDI will also be analyzed in section IV. This paper concludes that the EU policy on TDI is expected to be adjusted toward a framework favorable to other economic operators, such as users and consumers. Whether the public consultation for “Green Paper” is a process of consensus building is still an argument. It is likely that EU delegate will narrow down the gap between the EU and other exporting-oriented members in the Rules negotiations should the revised TDI be expanded to a large extent.

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