WTO, rules, commitments, tariffs, standards, trade wars, geographical indications, and more
UK-EU tariffs, tariff quotas, services, media, leadership, GATT Art24, continuity deals, and more
Trade, direct democracy
Crisis, reform, negotiations, disputes, amendments, agriculture, access to medicines, trade facilitation
Headlines
Yes, the WTO needs fixing—but not the way this New York Times piece imagines
Farah Stockman’s ideas won’t work because they don’t ‘get’ the WTO
December 27, 2020
Behind the rhetoric
● ‘Public stockholding for food security’ August 24, 2020
● Another ‘safeguard’ against import surges? August 30, 2020
WTO farm talks, from COVID-19 into 2021
Lessons for WTO work on agricultural trade and support
1. ‘WTO rules are not prescriptions’ 2. What’s happened 3. Prospects
(Plus References) December 31, 2020
US objections threaten deadlock over next WTO director-general
October 28-29, 2020
Is the WTO choosing a saviour? Or a butler? June 8; July 23, 2020
The WTO’s deadlock over an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19
December 17, 2020
Were Trump and Lighthizer right about WTO disputes?
The US’s claim that it is a victim in the WTO is based on a truly blinkered view. And that’s being generous June 21, 2020
The UK’s rolled-over deals after the Brexit transition January 1, 2021
Will ‘Melton Mowbray’ stay protected in the EU after the Brexit transition?
August 29, 2020, updated December 26, 2020
Dispute settlement in crisis, but …
Since December 2019 the WTO Appellate Body has been forced into a deep freeze
August 21, 2019; May 3, 2020
Short: By Christmas 2019 the WTO was supposed to be dead — why wasn’t it?
Long: A bit of bother down at the WTO court: Is it a killer?
Stop-gap: Arbitration, an alternative way to appeal August 3, 2020
… the WTO does more than disputes
Reminders for those who think the crisis is dragging trade into the law of the jungle
December 11, 2019; January 1 & 17, 2020
Keeping international trade within agreed rules relies on much more than dispute settlement
The WTO is surprisingly busy — considering it’s supposed to be dead
What have the UK and Switzerland agreed on trade post-Brexit?
Mainly from Swiss government information, prepared for Swiss companies
February 5, 2019; completely overhauled January 15, 2021
What’s really happening on tariff quotas and Britain’s WTO commitments?
September 9 & 12, 2018, updated
‘WTO terms’ will apply in all future UK-EU trade. But how much?
A sliding scale of trade barriers
Summary
Part 1: WTO terms
Part 2: goods
Part 3: services and more
May 27, 2020
Primers
The WTO and implications for the UK, EU, Brexit
and international trade policy
These posts explain the WTO, how it works, its member-driven structure, and the UK’s and EU’s relationship with it.
What is the WTO?
What is the WTO? And is it undemocratic?
August 18, 2018
Introducing the WTO elephant and its dodgy health
December 17, 2017
Real beginners’ guides
Tariffs and the WTO
July 28, 2018
Tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) and the WTO
September 9, 2018
GATT Article 24
June XXIV, MMXIX
UK’s WTO membership
Will the UK have to re-join? (No)
October 7, 2017
Tariff quotas and Britain’s WTO commitments
September 12, 2018
Older archived version
October 7; November 21, 2017
Problem trade
Dealing with problem trade measures — not just dispute settlement
December 11, 2019
The WTO is surprisingly busy — considering it’s supposed to be dead
January 17, 2020
More guides
Standards, regulations and trade in goods
September 5, 2018
What are geographical indications? And for post-Brexit UK?
May 5; September 26, 2018
Will ‘Melton Mowbray’ stay protected in the EU after the Brexit transition?
August 29, 2020
Notes: ‘GI View’, Rolling over names
January 5 & 10, 2021
‘WTO terms’
They apply in any future UK-EU trade relationship. But how much?
Summary
Part 1 ‘WTO terms’
Part 2 goods
Part3 services and more
May 27, 2020
12 years on, EU’s certified WTO goods commitments now up to date to 2004. What are they? Where can I find them?
February 4, 2017
Distortion of war
‘Do trade deals to escape the WTO.’ So why bother with it?
Weaponising the WTO is the worst way to understand the trading system we rely on
February 7, 2019
Tariff war?
Spot the difference: US tariffs on Scotch are not part of a tariff war
BBC Question Time was wrong about tariffs. It matters.
February 15, 2020
More on the WTO below
War of words
No such thing as a ‘WTO-deal’ Brexit. Video and text
June 17, 2019
Caught up in a war — the WTO, Brexit and ‘WTO terms’
April 6, 2019
On Brexit
Brexit and WTO commitments, WTO rules, free trade agreements,
Brexit more generally, presentations and evidence
Brexit and WTO commitments
Exploring post-Brexit tariffs
Four years on, still basic mistakes on tariffs at the very top of UK politics
September 18, 2020
1. The Hilton beef quota: a taste of what post-Brexit UK faces in the WTO
August 10, 2016
2. This EU tariff takes the biscuit
Plus a really nerdy look at annex 1
August 18, 2016
3. Oranges: a litmus test of UK post-Brexit tariff negotiations
September 10, 2016; August 27, 2017
Tariff quotas
What’s really happening on tariff quotas and Britain’s WTO commitments?
Plus
Comments received from organisations and other countries
September 12, 2018
The limits of ‘possibility’: Splitting the lamb-mutton quota for the UK and EU–27
January 6, 2017
Older
Second bite — how simple is the UK-WTO relationship post-Brexit?
August 17, 2016
Nothing simple about UK regaining WTO status post-Brexit
June 7, 2016
Services, tariffs
If the EU and UK fall back on WTO commitments what does this mean for services?
April 12, 2017; March 11, 2020
12 years on, EU’s certified WTO goods commitments now up to date to 2004. What are they? Where can I find them?
February 4, 2017
(Old guide now superseded:
Primer — 2. Tariff quotas
October 7; November 25, 2017)
Brexit and WTO rules
GATT Article 24
A real beginner’s guide
June XXIV, MMXIX
Article 24 in depth
June 27, 2019
One last go. The red herring in less than 400 words
February 16, 2019
The myth of a 10-year grace period, Brexit and trade talks with the EU
December 27, 2018
Iain Duncan Smith & co are wrong about GATT Art24, Brexit and getting out of jail
Telegraph, September 2, 2019
.
A bit of fun: Brexit through the magic land of Eksive
May 1, 2019
VIDEO GATT Article 24: They still don’t get it
YouTube, November 9, 2019
Older
Is the UK government planning dodgy ‘access’ to the EU market? Proposed special deal on cars or banking mooted
August 29, 2016
The case of the two UK-EU ‘interim’ deals — is the one in the WTO really ‘Plan B’?
March 20, 2017
Leaders, rules, borders
What WTO leadership means and where the UK would fit in
November 8, 2017
How to be a trade champion, a guide for busy politicians
November 21, 2017
Why the UK is already under WTO rules, and why that matters for Brexit
February 8, 2017
How does the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement really affect Brexit?
August 16, 2018
Does the WTO require countries to control their borders? No and yes
July 18, 2018
Free trade agreements, UK and EU relations
Rolling over EU agreements
The UK’s rolled-over deals after the Brexit transition January 1, 2021
Grandfathering EU free trade deals for the UK: a look at an actual text (S.Korea): It won’t be automatic
February 13, 2018
Text of the UK-S.Korea free trade agreement
September 3, 2019
Text of the UK-Japan trade agreement, chapter by chapter October 24, 2020
Which UK geographical indications are in its trade deal with Japan? October 26,2020
What have the UK and Switzerland agreed on trade post-Brexit? February 5, 2019; completely overhauled January 15, 2021
Types of agreement
Types of a possible future UK-EU trade deal. By Alan Swinbank, Reading University
January 10, 2017
In a nutshell: Brexit and the UK’s trading relations with the EU. 5 graphics summarising the 4 main options September 19, 2016
‘No deal’ on UK-EU trade is worse than ‘Australia-style’
November 30, 2020
Brexit generally
Media
Opinion: Brexit challenges the meaning of ‘political’ reporting. The problem isn’t just about quoting unnamed sources. It’s about what’s reported in the name of ‘politics’
October 27, 2019
If we’re to understand the Brexit talks, the media must do better than this
April 1, 2017
May
Five thoughts from the 2019 Easter break
May 7, 2019
1. Red Queen Theresa’s Race
2. Dishonesty and trade-offs
3. They ain’t seen nothing yet
4. Is the Prime Minister the problem?
5. Democracy and sovereignty weaponised
Alternative thinking
‘Don’t negotiate. Announce.’ Clemens Boonekamp thinks outside the box on Brexit
February 12, 2017
Older
Six things I’ve learnt since the Brexit referendum: seeing both the wood and the trees
January 9, 2017
Three thoughts on the Brexit referendum.
June 29, 2016
Presentations and evidence
Parliament
External links:
Global trade policy response to COVID-19 pandemic: a enquiry of the Commons International Trade Committee.
1. Video (Soumaya Keynes, Marianne Petsinger, Simon J. Evenett, Alan Wolff, Peter Ungphakorn)
2. Transcript page and direct link (html, pdf)
3. Written evidence
June 5, 2020
.
Questions on Brexit, agriculture, WTO schedules, standards, free trade agreements. Lords’ EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee. Plus video of Alan Matthews, Joseph McMahon
February 9, 2017
Brexit, agriculture, the WTO, and uncertainty. Lords’ EU External Affairs, Brexit Sub-Committee
October 22, 2016
‘Do trade deals to escape the WTO.’ So why bother with it? “Westminster Workshop” on parliamentary oversight of trade agreements. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, London
February 7, 2019
Others
Caught up in a war — the WTO and Brexit. What does leaving the EU ‘on WTO terms’ mean? A presentation for Chatham House on some of the implications
March 11; April 6, 2019
UK, EU & WTO. A presentation For LSE’s Executive Master in Public Administration programme
May 25, 2017
On Switzerland
Trade
What have the UK and Switzerland agreed on trade post-Brexit?
February 5, 2019; completely overhauled January 15, 2021
On THE WTO AND TRADE
Dispute settlement, policy and negotiation,
amendments and commitments
Dispute settlement
Crisis
Blinkered view: Trump and Lighthizer were wrong about WTO disputes
June 21, 2020
Short: By Christmas the WTO will be dead — or will it?
August 21, 2019; updated
Long: A bit of bother down at the WTO court — Why? And is it a killer?
August 21, 2019; updated
Stop-gap: Arbitration, an alternative way to appeal August 3, 2020
Technical notes:
1. WTO Appellate Body members and their terms
2. Zeroing
3. Dispute settlement is not essential (but it helps)
It’s working
How the WTO deals with problem trade measures—it’s not just dispute settlement
The Appellate Body is in a deep freeze, but those who think it will drag trade into the law of the jungle are in for a surprise
December 11, 2019; updated
The WTO is surprisingly busy — considering it’s supposed to be dead
January 17, 2020
VIDEO: The WTO and the global trading system (Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, YouTube, 54 mins)
— Adam Posen, Vince Cable, Stuart Harbinson, Peter Ungphakorn, David Tinline
June 10, 2020
Authorised retaliation
Spot the difference: US tariffs on Scotch are not part of a tariff war
BBC Question Time was wrong about tariffs. It matters.
February 15, 2020
More on the crisis
Yes, the WTO needs fixing—but not the way this NY Times piece imagines
December 27, 2020
Policy and negotiations
Behind the rhetoric
‘Public stockholding for food security’ in the WTO
Controversial. Not what it seems. And not the only way to create emergency food stocks in poorer countries. How essential is it?
August, 24, 2020
.
Does the WTO need a third ‘safeguard’ against import surges?
It scuppered an acrimonious WTO negotiation in 2008, but it never went away: the “special safeguard mechanism”
August 30, 2020
Access to medicines
The WTO’s deadlock over an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19
Questions and explanations about why the waiver is proposed, why it’s opposed and what it would mean
December 17, 2020
Director-General
US objections threaten WTO deadlock over its next director-general
‘Troika’ announced Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had broadest support, but US refused to join consensus
October 28, 2020
Is the World Trade Organization choosing a saviour? Or a butler?
June 8; July 23, 2020
Agriculture
WTO farm talks, from COVID-19 into 2021
1. ‘WTO rules are not prescriptions’
2. What’s happened
3. Prospects
(Plus References)
December 31, 2020
The 20-year saga of the WTO agriculture talks March 23, 2020
Who put the boot into Canadian dairy and why? By Robert Wolfe and Peter Ungphakorn May 25, 2017
On negotiations, G20
Book review: How ‘Dialogue of the Deaf’ produced a sound tool for policy-making
Negotiators, on how they concluded the WTO’s ground-breaking intellectual property agreement
August 26, 2016
How seriously should we view G20 words on resisting protectionism?
Record doesn’t match rhetoric
Updated September 6, 2016
WTO amendments and commitments
Trade facilitation
Update: the three essential tasks for the WTO’s new trade facilitation deal
February 22, 2018
Hard work lies ahead now that the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement has been activated in 112 countries
February 25, 2017
Amendment race
The race for the first ever WTO amendment: some key facts. The race has been won, but the process is not over.
Updated March 5, 2018
How to count the EU
Can EU law really dictate World Trade Organization rules?
December 1, 2016
WTO amendment on access to medicines faces EU conundrum
April 14; November 30, 2016
Header photo: Norway reflections by David Mark from Pixabay, CC0
