Brussels, 16/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - In a joint statement published on Thursday 15 October, 14 organisations from the business world - from four continents - urge the WTO member countries to ratify the agreement on trade facilitation, which was concluded at the WTO conference in Bali at the end of 2013.
“The undersigned associations wait impatiently for members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to put in place all necessary measures for the ratification of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation. We attach the highest importance to this agreement, which will reduce bureaucratic obstacles at the border and significantly lower costs for economic operators worldwide”, state the organisations - including Eurochambres, EuroCommerce, Euratex, the Foreign Trade Association and the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI). “Successful ratification of the ambitious Trade Facilitation Agreement would demonstrate the WTO's ability to negotiate and ratify a meaningful trade agreement after years of inaction”, they insist.
At the end of July, the 160 member countries of the WTO failed to adopt, within the agreed deadline, the protocol on implementing the trade facilitation agreement, concluded at the ministerial conference in Bali at the end of 2013. Indeed, led by India, a small coalition of member countries rejected approval of the protocol. India still establishes a link between implementing the mechanisms of the trade facilitation agreement and adopting permanent derogations for its policy on public stockholdings for food security purposes. New Delhi wants a permanent solution for the peace clause, which allows developing countries to take measures for the public stockholding of agricultural products exceeding the limits set by the WTO for domestic support - without these measures being contested at the WTO by other member countries. In Bali, the previous Indian government obtained a moratorium until 2017. (EH)