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題 名 | ‘Reforming the WTO's Approach to Decision-making: The Warwick Commission Report and Critical Mass Decision-Making’=WTO決策制訂的改革:華威委員會報告與關鍵多數決策制訂模式 |
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作 者 | 安‧卡普琳; | 書刊名 | WTO研究 |
卷 期 | 13 2009[民98] |
頁 次 | 頁1-26 |
分類號 | 558.069 |
關鍵詞 | 世界貿易組織; 華威委員會報告; 決策制訂; WTO; Warwick commission report; Decision-making; |
語 文 | 英文(English) |
中文摘要 | 多邊貿易體系正面臨嚴峻的挑戰。由於主要會員對農業補貼(subsidies)與保護主義等長期存在的問題堅持己見而陷入僵局,杜哈回合(Doha round)協商因而迄今已癱瘓七年餘。試圖就架構達成包裹協議以結束此一回合的努力在2008年7月的日內瓦部長級會議幾近成功,且儘管世界領袖們在2008年11月二十國集團(G20)與亞太經濟合作會議(APEC)高峰會上一再規勸,但在次月就證明各會員國仍缺乏政治意志力去達成協議。甚至連全球金融海嘯後保護主義再度興起的威脅加劇的刺激下各國領袖仍未能縮短他們的歧見。事實上,多邊貿易自由化絕非易事,而現今更是難上加難,尤其是目前議程中有不少問題在很多國家是內政上極為敏感的課題。但是有些困擾當前杜哈發展回合協商的問題卻是內在的問題。有鑑於此,世界貿易組織(WTO)邀請八位著名的貿易專家針對此一多邊貿易體系內部的問題進行診斷,因而有2005年1月的蘇瑟蘭報告(Sutherland Report : The Future of the WTO: Addressing institutional challenges in the new millennium),探討WTO成立10年以來面臨的種種制度面問題。2007年12月WTO又發表第二份報告,即華威委員會報告(Warwick Commission Report:Multilateral Trade Regime: Which Way Forward?)多邊貿易體制:該往何處去,內容為評估21世紀早期全球貿易體系治理,並提供貿易體系與WTO改革的政策建議。 本文主旨在就華威委員會報告做一概觀性剖析,尤其是該報告建議 WTO會員國應考慮「關鍵多數決策制訂模式」(critical mass decision-making)作為比現行要求所有的協定適用會員全體的決策制訂模式更具彈性的另類模式。聚焦於關鍵多數的提議絕非意味著華威委員會報告的其他建議比較不重要,事實上,該報告就如同先前的蘇瑟蘭報告一樣花了相當多頁數討論令人傷腦筋的區域貿易協定及這些協定對全球貿易主義的負面衝擊。而所不同的是,華威委員會報告將焦點置於全球貿易治理體系的未來。 |
英文摘要 | The multilateral trade system is facing immense challenges.? The Doha Round of negotiations has limped along for seven years, with the major players deadlocked over the perennial issue of agriculture subsidies and protectionism.? Efforts to reach an agreement on a framework package to conclude the round came agonisingly close to success during the July 2008 ministerial meeting in Geneva, but despite the exhortations of world leaders at the G20 and APEC summit meetings in November 2008, there proved to be insufficient political will to reach an agreement the following month, in December 2008.? Not even the threat of resurgent protectionism in the wake of the global financial crisis was sufficient to prod leaders into bridging their differences for the sake of locking in much of the unilateral liberalisation which has been achieved in the past decade. To be sure, the last successful round of multilateral trade negotiations, the Uruguay Round (1986-1994), failed to meet many of its key deadlines, and was declared to be near death on more than one occasion.? Multilateral trade liberalisation has never been easy, and it is even more difficult now that much of the ‘low hanging fruit’ has been plucked and the remaining issues on the table have a high degree of domestic political sensitivity in many countries.? But some of the problems that are plaguing the current Doha ‘Development’ Round of negotiations are intrinsic to the specific circumstances and context of the round itself.? Arguably, its launch was premature, having been hastened by the desire of world leaders to demonstrate solidarity in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.? Its ‘development’ agenda remains unclear and is both contested and politicised in ways that have often been unhelpful to advancing the negotiations.? Moreover, it is evident that regional trade agreements (that is, preferential trade agreements (PTAs) between two or more countries), which are relatively easy and quick to negotiate, have become a politically attractive alternative to many governments.? Many believe that the proliferation of PTA negotiations are ‘sucking the oxygen’ out of the Doha Round. But there are also deeper pressures and strains within the multilateral trade system, and these have been the subject of recent inquiries and reports.? The first of these was a report by eight eminent trade experts (‘the Sutherland Report’), which was commissioned by the then World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General, Supachai Panitchpakdi, following the breakdown of the Doha negotiations in Cancun in 2003.?? The Sutherland Report identified a number of challenges to the WTO including the erosion of its central norm of non-discrimination as a result of the proliferation of regional trade agreements, and the growing difficulties in advancing negotiations and decision-making within the WTO.? The Sutherland Report was followed three years later by the Warwick Commission, which was an independent inquiry that launched its report at the WTO headquarters in Geneva in December 2007.? Like the Sutherland Report, the Warwick Commission Report took its investigation beyond the problems that have plagued the Doha Round and instead looked to the future of the system of global trade governance.? And like the Sutherland Report, it also identified as key challenges for the multilateral trade system reconciling the parallel universes of regional and multilateral trade agreements, and the need to find ways of overcoming blockages in decision-making. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the Warwick Commission Report and, in particular, its recommendation that the WTO membership give consideration to ‘critical mass decision-making’, an alternative approach to decision-making that is more flexible than the current approach which requires that all Agreements to apply to all Members.? Focusing on the critical mass proposal is in no way meant to suggest that other recommendations in the Warwick Commission Report are any less important.? Indeed, the Warwick Commission Report, like the Sutherland Report before it, devoted considerable discussion to the vexing question of regional trade agreements and their potential to undermine a more global approach to trade relations.? However, there is already a large and rich literature that explores these issues from a variety of political, economic and institutional perspectives, as well as a growing literature on proposals for how to reconcile the ‘parallel universes’ of multilateral and regional trade agreements.?? By contrast, the proposals for critical mass decision-making are more recent and embryonic, and have been prompted by the manifest difficulties in decision-making and negotiating within the WTO since its inception in 1995. The paper proceeds in three parts.? Part one provides a brief overview of the Warwick Commission’s principal findings.? Part two focuses in more detail on the Commission’s recommendation in relation to critical mass decision-making.? Part three part takes the discussion beyond the Warwick Commission’s specific recommendations, and explores some of the major criticisms of the critical mass idea.? This article concludes that, on balance, a critical mass approach could make decision-making in the WTO more flexible and efficient, thus helping to ensure that multilateral trade rules remain adaptable, responsive and relevant to its membership. |
本系統中英文摘要資訊取自各篇刊載內容。