In mid-year, an increase in the number of notifications by World Trade Organization (WTO) members has been observed in Geneva, a sign that calls for transparency would not remain in vain.
In accordance with the organisation's notification obligations, WTO members are required to share their trade policies, in order to ensure the transparency of the multilateral trading system. These concern, among other things, agricultural subsidies, the role of state-owned enterprises, or the establishment of new standards for the import of products.
An obligation that many members struggle to meet, due to lack of capacity for some and lack of political will for others.
“As of 15 July we've received 54 subsidy notifications from WTO members for 2019 (including the EU and some of its member states)”, a WTO source confirmed to EUROPE.
Notifying members represent about 83% of world trade and 86% of world GDP.
“Of these 54 notifications, 39 contain information on fisheries subsidies”, added this source.
This is an improvement over 2017: at the same time, 44 notifications had been received, compared to only 19 in mid-2015.
While some members welcomed this news with “cautious optimism”, it could reveal the beginning of a change of course.
“So it appears that the message from some of our members about the need to improve the timeliness of notifications is starting to get through”, said the same source.
Indeed, several members, including the United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan, had taken the lead and proposed ways to reform the system to improve its transparency. In these proposals, sanctions are envisaged for ‘recalcitrant’ members.
However, at its meeting on 15 July, the African Group expressed its opposition to any additional burden of notifications on developing countries, given their limited resources. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)