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Peter Ungphakorn Profile picture
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3 Jan, 7 tweets, 4 min read
A New Year gift for Trade Twitter

Work in the @wto is increasingly “plurilateral” = among part of the membership (“multilateral” = the whole membership)

Is it the way to go when WTO-wide consensus is elusive?

It’s controversial. There are pitfalls

1/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/17-…
This is an attempt to explain plurilaterals. It’s in 2 parts:

• General explanation, including political and legal pitfalls
• The plurilaterals, each in a nutshell. There are 17, so I’m afraid it’s long, from e-commerce to environment and trade

2/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/17-…
Plurilaterals are not new. They date back at least to the 1960s and 1970s under the pre-WTO GATT.

5 are now fully multilateral WTO agreements
2 are still plurilateral
2 have been scrapped

3/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/17-…
5 (or 6 depending on how we count) plurilaterals have been concluded under the WTO (since 1995)

2 negotiations have been suspended

4/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/17-…
7 plurilaterals are currently under discussion in the WTO. Some are proper negotiations. Others are just talk (for now at least). The aim is to modernise the @wto.

1 is procedural: on appealing dispute rulings while the Appellate Body cannot function

5/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/17-…
The legal and political pitfalls are about whether the plurilaterals discriminate against non-participating WTO members, how that is inserted into the WTO rule-book, and whether dissenting countries can block making the results legal. It’s complicated

6/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/17-…
That explanation is long, but for even more information on most of the plurilaterals, go to Geneva Trade Platform’s excellent website

7/7 wtoplurilaterals.info

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More from @CoppetainPU

Peter Ungphakorn Profile picture
12 Dec 21
COVID-19 situation in Switzerland 🇨🇭 this weekend

1. Case numbers at record high but testing is also high
2. Hospitalisations and deaths rising

1/6 covid19.admin.ch/en/overview?ti… Image
Bear in mind testing in 🇨🇭 is now much higher than it used to be. Not surprising that detected cases are also high.

But that doesn't explain hospitalisations and deaths

2/6 covid19.admin.ch/en/overview?ti… Image
Vaccination rates in 🇨🇭 are not brilliant, particularly (but not only) in the German-speaking east

3/6 covid19.admin.ch/en/overview?ti… Image
Read 6 tweets
Peter Ungphakorn Profile picture
7 Dec 21
The 12th WTO Ministerial Conference #MC12 is postponed. What now?

Can ambassadors get close to agreement on their own? They couldn’t in November.

And can ministers find the necessary compromises on Zoom?

Fingers crossed. With @BobWolfeSPS

1/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/12/06/goo…
GOOD NEWS:

• ministers avoided embarrassment of a failed #MC12 meeting (although spin would have made it look like it achieved a lot, not just kicked cans)

• the approaching meeting focused minds, produced lots of work, before it was abandoned

2/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/12/06/goo… Image
THE BAD

There was so much members disagreed about, most of it with little sign of compromise. They couldn’t even agree on what to call the statement to be issued at the end of the Ministerial Conference #MC12

For now it’s a draft “outcome document”.

3/7 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/12/06/goo… Image
Read 7 tweets
Peter Ungphakorn Profile picture
1 Dec 21
NEW—document in the talks among 67 WTO members (EU=28) on streamlining domestic regulation of services.

This lists the countries that have submitted their “schedules” (lists) of commitments. Includes all the major traders = a “critical mass”

1/5 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S… ImageImageImage
In principle, those commitments would comply with WTO non-discrimination rules (“most-favoured nation”), meaning they would apply to service suppliers from all WTO members, including free-riding non-participants.

We have to see the details to confirm

2/5 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S… ImageImageImage
Members’ individual commitments are drafted according to a “reference paper” released yesterday.

That reference paper will probably not be legally binding (wait for tomorrow’s announcement), but the “schedules” of commitments will be, when certified

3/5
Read 8 tweets
Peter Ungphakorn Profile picture
26 Nov 21
Confirmed, it's an urgent informal meeting of the WTO General Council at 9.30 (in about 14 minutes) to discuss the deteriorating health situation, travel restrctions and possible alternative arrangements for the Ministerial Conference
The official Swiss announcement is now available in French, German, Italian but not yet English. Buttons to switch language at the top right

bag.admin.ch/bag/fr/home/da…
Bloomberg is reporting that the in-person Ministerial Conference is postponed. I'm waiting for confirmation
Read 4 tweets
Peter Ungphakorn Profile picture
24 Nov 21
THIS SUNDAY—ANOTHER 🇨🇭 vote

4th of the year. 3 issues:

1. Covid-19 law (referendum)
2. Better pay and conditions for nurses (initiative)
3. Federal judges to be chosen by drawing lots (initiative)

The Swiss broadcaster’s final opinion poll is out

1/8 swissinfo.ch/eng/covid-cert…
1. The vote on the Covid law is a proper 🇨🇭 #referendum (law or constitutional change referred to a public vote)

This is the 2nd vote on the law. The first was in June

It’s about a range of powers but the Covid certificate is the focus of attention

2/8 swissinfo.ch/eng/fate-of-co…
What is a 🇨🇭 referendum?

A nationwide vote called to challenge legislation already approved by parliament:

• if 50,000 signatures collected within 100-day deadline
• mandatory for constitutional amendments or major international agreements.

3/8 swissinfo.ch/eng/direct-dem…
Read 8 tweets
Peter Ungphakorn Profile picture
23 Nov 21
I sat on this for a day before publishing.

The letter from 86 NGOs misrepresents what’s happening in the WTO so badly that perhaps it’s better to just ignore it.

But it is sponsored by some big names (@amnesty, @Oxfam) and is attracting attention.

1/5 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/11/23/ngo…
What did the letter get wrong?

Apart from the absurd hyperbole:

1. The two strands of WTO work on trade and the pandemic are not mutually exclusive. The letter says ditch one in favour of the other. That’s not what most developing countries want

2/5 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/11/23/ngo…
2. Those 2 strands (compiling views on trade issues; waiving intellectual property rules) are not equivalent

One is about compiling views (easier). The other is rule-making, affecting legal rights and obligations (much more difficult)

3/5 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/11/23/ngo…
Read 5 tweets

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