Publication: Conclude Doha : It Matters!
Date
2009-11-01
ISSN
Published
2009-11-01
Author(s)
Abstract
The Doha Round must be concluded not
because it will produce dramatic liberalization but because
it will create greater security of market access. Its
conclusion would strengthen, symbolically and substantively,
the WTO s valuable role in restraining protectionism in the
current downturn. What is on the table would constrain the
scope for tariff protection in all goods, ban agricultural
export subsidies in the industrial countries and sharply
reduce the scope for distorting domestic support - by 70 per
cent in the EU and 60 per cent in the US. Average farm
tariffs that exporters face would fall to 12 per cent (from
14.5 per cent) and the tariffs on exports of manufactures to
less than 2.5 per cent (from about 3 per cent). There are
also environmental benefits to be captured, in particular
disciplining the use of subsidies that encourage
over-fishing and lowering tariffs on technologies that can
help mitigate global warming. An agreement to facilitate
trade by cutting red tape will further expand trade
opportunities. Greater market access for the least-developed
countries will result from the "duty free and quota
free" proposal and their ability to take advantage of
new opportunities will be enhanced by the Doha-related
"aid for trade" initiative. Finally, concluding
Doha would create space for multilateral cooperation on
critical policy matters that lie outside the Doha Agenda,
most urgently the trade policy implications of climate
change mitigation.
Citation
“Hoekman, Bernard; Martin, Will; Mattoo, Aaditya. 2009. Conclude Doha : It Matters!. Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5135. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4327 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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