TM108 M2

• Multilateral Trade Agreement (MTA)


  Agreement between many nations at one time, the main benefit is that all nations get treated equally, especially for poorer nations
• Multilateral Trade Agreements


  • GATT-WTO
  • The Doha round of trade agreements
• Regional Trade Agreement (RTA)


  Similar to multilateral trade agreements but limited to participants in a specific geographical area or region
• Regional Trade Agreements


  • ATIGA (AFTA)
• Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA)


  Agreement between two sides, each side could be a country, a trade bloc or an informal group of countries
• Bilateral Trade Agreements


  • PJEPA (between two countries)
  • AKFTA Agreement (between a trade bloc (ASEAN) and a country (Korea))
• Unilateral Trade Agreement


  Treaty that benefits only one country, imposed on one country by another with the potential to aid developing countries' economies
• Unilateral Trade Agreements


  • GSP Scheme
• APEC was established in 1989 as an informal Ministerial-level dialogue group with 12 members, reaching full membership at 21 Pacific Rim countries in 1998
• APEC has no treaty obligations required of its participants, decisions are reached by consensus and commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis
• APEC Individual Action Plans


  Record of actions taken by each Member Economy to meet its stated goals for free and open trade and investment, on a voluntary and non-binding basis
• APEC Collective Action Plans


  Detail the collective actions of all APEC members to meet the free trade and investment goals, and monitor and report on progress
• APEC's Three Pillars (Scope of Work)

  • Trade and Investment Liberalization
  • Business Facilitation
  • Economic and Technical Cooperation
• APEC operates as a cooperative, multilateral economic and trade forum committed to reducing barriers to trade and investment without requiring its members to enter into legally binding obligations
• APEC currently has 21 members, the criterion for membership is that the member is a separate economy, rather than a state
• The Annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (AELM) is attended by the heads of government except Taiwan, and is where the policy agenda is set for APEC
• APEC Policy Development


  • APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (AELM)
  • APEC Ministerial Meeting
  • Sectoral Ministerial Meetings
  • APEC Business Advisory Council
• GATT was set up in 1947 as a Negotiating Forum on the reduction of trade barriers, and is a Multilateral Treaty which provides rules for international trade
• GATT Trade Rounds


  • Geneva (1947)
  • Annecy (1949)
  • Torquay (1951)
  • Geneva (1956)
  • Geneva (Dillon Round) (1960-1961)
  • Geneva (Kennedy Round) (1964-1967)
  • Geneva (Tokyo Round) (1973-1979)
  • Geneva (Uruguay Round) (1986-1994)
• The Final Act concluding the Uruguay Round and officially establishing the WTO regime was signed on 15 April 1994, during the ministerial meeting at Marrakesh, Morocco
• World Trade Organization (WTO)

  An institutional body overseeing the rules of international trade and serving as a negotiating forum and trade dispute settlement body
• The WTO currently comprises of 164 members representing more than 98% of the world's population, and is headed by Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria
• WTO Structure


  • Ministerial Conference
  • General Council
• The WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation establishes a series of measures for expeditiously moving goods across borders, and is expected to reduce total trade costs by more than 14% for low-income countries
• The Uruguay Round transformed the GATT into the WTO, and under its Agreement on Agriculture, provided for the conversion of Quantitative Restrictions to tariffs and for a periodic reduction of tariffs
• The Doha Round is the latest trade-negotiation Round of the WTO, aimed at achieving major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules
• Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) Negotiations

  Focuses on the reduction or elimination in tariffs, particularly on exportable goods of interest to developing countries, and the removal of Non-Tariff Barriers
• The Information Technology Agreement (ITA) is a WTO Agreement to eliminate tariffs on information technology products by the year 2000, initiated by the QUAD countries and currently with 74 participants representing about 97% of world trade in IT products
• The World Customs Organization (WCO) Convention entered into force in 1952 with 17 participating countries, and today comprises 185 Members
• Participants representing about 97% of world trade in IT products
• The commitments undertaken under the ITA are on an MFN basis, and therefore benefits all WTO members
• INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT (ITA)


  An agreement to oversee the implementation of the ITA, including to review the product coverage, consult on non-tariff barriers, consider classification divergences and serve as a forum to work out disagreements between participants
• The Philippines formally signed the Agreement


  01 April 1997
• Philippines' legal enactments to the ITA

  1. Executive Order (E.O.) No. 465 (s. 1998) and E.O. No. 163 (s. 1999) - Binding of tariffs at zero duty in yr 2000

  2. E.O. No. 395 (s. 2004) - Binding at zero duty the remaining tariff lines in 2005

  3. E.O. 21 dated 27 April 2017 - Issued to implement the Philippines' commitment on the ITA expansion
• WORLD CUSTOMS ORGANIZATION (WCO)

  The sole intergovernmental organization exclusively focused on CUSTOMS MATTERS. It is a Forum where delegates can tackle various customs issues on an equal footing
• The WCO Convention entered into force in 1952 with 17 participating countries. Today, the WCO comprise of 185 Members, collectively accounting for 98% of world trade
• The WCO established and maintains the international Harmonized System (HS) goods nomenclature, and administers the technical aspects of the WTO Agreements on Customs Valuation and Rules of Origin
• Current Secretary General of the WCO

  Dr. Kunio Mikuriya (January 2009 - Present) from Japan
• The WCO does not deal with tariff and trade dispute, these fall under the jurisdiction of the WTO
• COUNCIL


  • It is the supreme body of the World Customs Organization
  • It takes the final decisions regarding the Organization's work and activities
  • All WCO bodies report to the Council