The Negotiations in the WTO

Instructors

HATOYAMA Masahito

Term / Language / Credits

S1S2 / English / 2

Objectives

This course will focus on the negotiations in Doha Development Agenda (DDA), especially the negotiations on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA). The WTO has resumed the discussion on the DDA since last December. The negotiations are still to go.
We look back how the two negotiations had developed the draft texts up to the Ministerial meeting at Geneva in 2008, just before the entire DDA negotiations stopped. We pay attention to such characteristics of the DDA negotiations as the need to accommodate legitimate concerns of developing Members at various developing stages and the difficulty to set adequate levels of ambition. We also consider the intricate linkage between these negotiations and the domestic policies. While engaging in the negotiations, some Members undertook the policy reforms at home in anticipation of the possible outcomes of the negotiations, which has had several implications. In all, we examine the complexities of the negotiations, which seem to be part of the reason behind the stalemate. Building on the lessons that can be learned from the experience of the negotiations during this crucial period, we explore how we could proceed in a thoughtful manner the DDA and similar multilateral negotiations in international settings.

Keywords

Negotiations, The Doha Development Agenda, Agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations, Ministerial meeting at Geneva in 2008, Draft texts

Schedule

A. Introduction
B. Theoretical Framework
C. Short History until the Uruguay Round and the establishment of the WTO
D. Tracing the Processes of the Negotiations under the DDA
a. Agriculture (Market Access, Domestic Support, Export Competition, S&D)
b. Non-agricultural market access (NAMA)
1. The Doha Declaration 2001
2. The July Framework 2004
3. From Hong Kong Ministerial to Geneva Mini-Ministerial 2008
E. Domestic Policy Reforms during the Period
E.g. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform 2003 of the EU
F. Bargaining Coalitions
G. Improving the Governance of the Negotiations
The Role of the Director-General and the Secretariat
The Role of the Chairs of the Negotiating Sessions
H. Reforming the WTO

Teaching Methods

Many useful materials are available on the WTO website. Each student will be assigned to make a research and a presentation in class on the specific stage of the negotiations. We discuss what could be tried creatively in the negotiations and what went wrong. There is no final examinations.

Grading

Class attendance, participation into class discussion and presentation in class. There is no final examination.

Miscellaneous Information

The more diverse students come into the course, the more fruitful discussion we can have.

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