Asymmetries and Poverty: Challenges for NorthSouth Agreements

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Asymmetries and Poverty Challenges for
North-South Agreements

• Alan Fairlie Reinoso
• Principal Professor in Economics, Pontifical
  Catholic University of Peru
• Coordinator, Andean Node, LATN
• Session 38
• Trade Liberalization and Poverty
• Policy Challenges from Latin America
• Geneva, September 25th 2008

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• RTAs and development strategy
• Liberalization-employment-inequality-poverty
• Liberalization-integration-growth
• Investment does not essentially depend on RTAs
• New regionalism and RTAs

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I. Trade and Asymmetry Treatment

• Reduce the existent asymmetries so developing
  countries can increase their chances to obtain
  benefits from trade liberalization.
• Special and Differentiated Mechanism (TED) as an
  instrument.
• How TED is recognized in particular frameworks,
  such as WTO, Regional Agreements and FTAs?
• Which are the possibilities for
  implemmentation?

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II. North-South Agreements

• Trade-off between acces to market and concessions
  of disciplines.
• Differences between USA y EU
• ? Commercial dimension.
• ? Cooperation and political dialogue
  dimension
• ? Willingness to address asymmetries and
  
• special and differentiated
  treatment.
• ? Link with regional integration
  between
• convergence and conflict

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• 2.1. Access to markets
• Subsidies applied by USA EU and restrictions
  in access for sensitive products limit growth.
• 2.2. Concessions of disciplines
• Investments definition investment-investor,
  indirect expropiation, perfomance requirements.
  
• Services Consessions WTO PLUS and restriction
  mode 4.
• Intellectual property Consessions ADPIC-PLUS and
  risks of bio-piracy
• State procurement National treatment and
  promotion of local industry

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• Balance
• Consessions type WTO PLUS and limitations
• to the potential access to markets and export
  
• growth
• Weakened asymmetry treatment
• Concrete proposals on TED have not been
• raised yet.
• Implemmentation agenda and internal
• restrictions.
• Reduction of the States room for manouver
• policy instruments and development strategy