Lars Karlsson: CapacityNow

The European Union has presented their reform paper on how the World Trade Organization (WTO) can be modernize to meet the challenges of the future.

The European Commission yesterday presented a first set of ideas on how to modernise the WTO and to make international trade rules fit for the challenges of the global economy.

Presenting the Commission’s concept paper, Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said: “The multilateral trading system has for the past decades provided a stable, predictable and effective framework for companies across the world, helping many economies to grow rapidly. Also today, the WTO is indispensable in ensuring open, fair and rules-based trade. But despite its success, the World Trade Organisation has not been able to adapt sufficiently to the rapidly changing global economy. The world has changed, the WTO has not. It’s high time to act to make the system able to address challenges of the today’s global economy and work for everyone again. And the EU must take a lead role in that.”

The EU remains a staunch supporter of the multilateral trading system. For that reason, the European Council of 28-29 June 2018 gave the European Commission a mandate to pursue WTO modernisation to adapt it to a changing world, and to strengthen its effectiveness.

The EU’s concept paper published today and already consulted with EU Member States sets out the direction of this modernisation effort. Without prejudice to the EU’s final position on these matters, these ideas relate to three key areas:

• overcoming the imminent deadlock on the WTO dispute settlement system.

The EU already started to engage with other WTO partners: with the US and Japan, in the framework of the trilateral discussions; with China, in the dedicated working group set up during the latest EU-China Summit; with other partners, most recently at the G20 Trade Ministerial. The EU will continue discussing these first ideas with various WTO partners in the coming weeks with a view to preparing concrete proposals to the WTO.  The European Parliament and the Council will be kept fully on board of those discussions.

The existence of agreed rules on cross border trade, monitored by the WTO and enforced through an impartial system for resolving disputes helped for decades to defuse trade tensions and avert trade wars. However, the development of new rules on trade has not happened in sync with economic, political and technological changes. In particular, market-distorting subsidies, often channelled through state-owned enterprises are not adequately captured under current international trade rules, eroding the level playing field for economic operators.

The WTO is now increasingly burdened by inflexible procedures and conflicting interest amongst countries. The arm of the WTO that resolves trade disputes is on the verge of being paralysed because of the blocking of nominations of new WTO Appellate Body Members. And the WTO’s role as a monitoring body is under threat by a lack of transparency from many countries.

The proposals published today aim to redress this situation and make the system efficient to the benefit of all its member countries.

You can read the document here: EU Reform Paper WTO

It is moving. Maybe. EU reported to be working on a proposal for an alternative bsck-stop solution on Ireland.

This is a qoute from FT:

”….British inspectors could also be able to carry out “limited checks” on goods heading to Northern Ireland in UK ports to ensure they met single market rules. It also suggested checks could be carried out on ferries or in factories on the UK mainland as part of a “trusted trader” set up.”

Many sources are now saying that there might be hope for some progress soon.

You can read an article from iNews here: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/brussels-aims-to-unblock-brexit-talks-to-secure-deal/

This year 2018, the European Union AEO concept will be 10 years old.

On Friday 14 September in Brussels, Belgian Customs organized a national event to celebrate AEO 10 years ju inviting Belgian AEO companies to a seminar. Almost 300 companies attended the event.

I was deighted to get an invitation to deliver a Key Note Speech on ‘Brexit and AEO’.

With two old colleagues and friend, Philipe Kermode Director Taxud, EU Commission and Belgian Director General Kristian Vanderwaeren,

During general plenary sessions and thematic sessions were presented by national and international guest speakers, The event was also an excellent opportunity to network extensively.

The Belgian Customs Director General, Kristian Vanderwaeren, opened the conference with an excellent speech about innovation and cooperstion.

Philip Kermode, Director of Customs, Taxud, European Commission talked about the development of AEO and MRA within European Union and the future plans for the instrument.

A truly excellent event.