December 21, 2006

Developing Countries Consider South-South Tarriff Reductions

From BNA's fantastic International Trade service (story by Daniel Pruzin, who seems to consistently do a nice job):

Senior trade officials have reached a deal on the framework for a future deal to reduce tariffs on goods traded between developing countries. 

Negotiators ended a Dec. 11-13 meeting at the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) with a general agreement on the formula and basis for the tariff cuts, the range of cuts to be considered, product coverage, exceptions from the agreed cuts, and the time frame for completing the negotiations, according to officials taking part in the talks. 

The negotiations, dubbed the "South-South" trade talks, are taking place under the aegis of UNCTAD's Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) agreement. The current round of talks were launched at a meeting of GSTP participants in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in June 2004. 

While more than 40 developing countries have signed on to the GSTP accord, not all of them are taking an active part in the current round of tariff talks. UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi urged GSTP signatories Dec. 11 to indicate their participation in the negotiations as a mark of commitment. 

Signatories include countries such as Bangladesh, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, North and South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Mercosur trade bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela).

Notable absentees include China, the world's third biggest trading power, and South Africa, the African continent's biggest economy.

Posted by Anupam Chander on December 21, 2006 at 10:29 AM in Globalization | Permalink