WTO Breakthrough: Threat of Taiwan's Marginalization Persists

WTO Breakthrough: Threat of Taiwan's Marginalization Persists
United Daily News editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China)
A Translation
December 10, 2013

Summary: This reduction of tariffs from 10% to zero, and the liberalization of service concessions, are limited to FTA Contracting States. The Taiwan Region of the ROC has almost no FTAs. It has not joined the TPP. It must abide by outdated entry conditions from 18 years ago. Compared to South Korea, Japan, and other competitors, Taiwan stands at a disadvantage. Therefore although the WTO has made a breakthrough, Taiwan still faces the threat of marginalization. We have no room to relax.

Full text below:

The Ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia has just adjourned. The conference reached resolutions on trade facilitation, agricultural products safety, and trade development. These Doha Round issues have been bandied about for years without resolution. Now, finally, we have achieved results. As a result, the international media has used provocative titles to describe this major breakthrough. Some even say the Doha Round is over. These three resolutions did not come easily. Actually they had little to do with Doah Round core issues. The prospect of Taiwan's marginalization remains undiminished.

In 2001 the WTO initiated the Doha Round of negotiations. Nine issues were included. These include agriculture, liberalization of the industrial and service sectors, trade facilitation, trade regulation, trade and development, trade and the environment, dispute resolution, and intellectual property rights. Too many issues were involved. Member states increased to 159 nations. As a result, 12 years have elapsed, but the round has yet to reach a conclusion. Every time the Council of Ministers expected a breakthrough. But every time they were disappointed. The last Council of Ministers even hoped the countries would consider an alternative. They were ready to give up on Doha. Under the circumstances, the Council of Ministers consensus on some of the nine issues is truly exciting.

Take trade facilitation resolution. The disclosure of information, risk management , simplification of procedures, and provisions for relief will reduce unnecessary costs and trade barriers created by international customs clearance and customs inspection procedures. The remaining agriculture-related resolutions are more relevant to developing countries. One of them relates to countries such as India, with its food safety considerations. Government budgets are used to acquire rice, wheat, and other major food stores, These are distributed to the poor. If they exceed the limit for "domestic agricultural support," other countries may not object to these temporary measures. The other two relate to agricultural tariff quota management, and the management of agricultural export subsidies .

Another issue affects Taiwan more directly -- trade facilitation resolution. Global rules may further reduce the inconvenience and cost of exports. This is definitely a good thing, especially the more complex customs procedures. These cause much greater inconvenience, distress, and harm to SMEs than multinationals. SMEs export less. They lack professional talent. They have less inventory. They are extremely concerned about time. According to international estimates for large enterprises, customs procedure trade costs are almost irrelevant. But they account for 10 to 20 percent of the cost for SME exports, almost as much as customs duties.

For supporters of WTO and multilateral liberalization, a consensus is possible on these small packages. They give the Doha Round a chance to survive. More importantly, the aforementioned trade facilitation resolution has already met the basic terms for bilateral free trade agreements in general (FTA). For example, the Taiwan-New Zealand and Taiwan-Singapore economic agreements have similar provisions. This means that a variety of bilateral and regional integration mechanisms, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement TPP) are are likely to lead to global convergence.

The recent resolutions on these three issues are important. But strictly speaking, they are second bananas in global trade liberalization, and not the stars of the show. The WTO refers to these items in the Doha menu as "a la carte" items. 

In particular, the current resolution does not include the stars of the show, tariff reductions for agricultural and industrial products, or liberalization of the services market. Most of the Member States remain committed to the standards of the WTO when it was established 18 years ago. This has motivated them to promote FTAs. For example, for many Southeast Asian countries, WTO tariff rates exceed 10%. FTAs have enabled these countries to eliminate tariffs entirely on nearly all goods. Also, 18 years ago, we were still unsure about service sector liberalization. Attitudes toward liberalization were conservative. But over the past decade, in order to attract foreign investment, many countries have promoted the modernization of services. They have substantially relaxed foreign investment restrictions.

This reduction of tariffs from 10% to zero, and the liberalization of service concessions, are limited to FTA Contracting States. The Taiwan Region of the ROC has almost no FTAs. It has not joined the TPP. It must abide by outdated entry conditions from 18 years ago. Compared to South Korea, Japan, and other competitors, Taiwan stands at a disadvantage. Therefore although the WTO has made a breakthrough, Taiwan still faces the threat of marginalization. We have no room to relax.

WTO有突破，台灣邊緣化的威脅未減
【聯合報╱社論】
2013.12.10 04:20 am

世貿組織（ＷＴＯ）第九屆部長會議日前在印尼峇里島閉幕，會中針對貿易便捷化、農業安全及貿易發展等議題達成決議。這三個議題均屬於談了多年無法結束的「杜哈回合」議題，總算有了些結果，因此國際媒體皆以聳動的標題來描述這項重大突破，甚至有謂杜哈回合已經結束。這三個決議確實得來不易，但離杜哈談判的核心問題其實還很遠，台灣邊緣化的威脅亦絲毫未減。

二○○一年啟動的ＷＴＯ「杜哈回合」談判，設定了九個談判議題，分別是農、工及服務業的自由化、貿易便捷化、貿易規則、貿易與發展、貿易與環境、爭端解決以及智慧財產權等。由於議題太多，成員國又膨脹到一五九國，所以至今已經十二個年頭，仍無法結束。過去每次部長會議都期望有所突破，卻都失望而歸；上一屆部長會議，甚至要各國開始思考「替代方案」，幾乎要放棄杜哈。在這個背景下，這次部長會議能對於九大議題中的部分項目達成共識，確實令人振奮。

以貿易便捷化決議為例，主要是透過資訊公開、風險控管、程序簡化以及提供救濟管道等要求，來降低世界各國因通關、檢驗等海關程序所造成的貿易障礙及無謂成本。其餘幾個與農業相關的決議，則與發展中國家比較有關。其中一項是關於如印度等國家基於糧食安全的考量，以政府預算收購稻米、小麥等主要糧食儲存，甚至用作發放給貧民之用者，若超過各國被允許的「國內農業支持」總量上限時，其他國家不得提出告訴的暫時措施。另二項則是關於農業關稅配額的管理，以及農產品出口補貼之管理。

對台灣利益比較直接相關者，是貿易便捷化決議。透過這個全球規則，能進一步減少出口的不便與成本，絕對是好事一件。特別是海關程序越複雜、不便，對於中小企業的困擾及影響，往往遠高於跨國企業；因為中小企業出口量少，專業人才不足，庫存也少，對時間快慢很敏感。事實上，按照國際組織估計，海關程序佔大型企業的貿易成本幾乎無關痛癢，卻可能佔中小企業出口成本的一到兩成，幾乎跟被課關稅的效果差不多。

對ＷＴＯ與多邊自由化的支持者而言，這些小型套餐能達成共識，至少可使「杜哈回合」出現起死回生的一線生機。更重要的是，前述的貿易便捷化決議內容，其實已經是一般雙邊自由貿易協定（ＦＴＡ）的基本條款（例如台紐、台星經濟協定都有類似規定），意味著各種雙邊及區域整合（如跨太平洋夥伴協定ＴＰＰ）機制，未來皆可能匯流成為全球共同規則。

本次達成決議的三個項目雖然都很重要，但嚴格來說，只能稱得上是全球貿易自由化的「龍套」，而不是主角。用ＷＴＯ的術語形容，只是整套杜哈菜單中的一個「小套餐」。

尤其，本次決議並不包含農工產品的關稅削減、服務業市場開放等自由化主角，使得絕大部分會員國的承諾仍停留在十八年前ＷＴＯ成立時的水準，也導致各國推動ＦＴＡ的動力依舊絲毫未減。例如，許多東南亞國家的ＷＴＯ關稅稅率，都還超過十％；而在ＦＴＡ下，這些國家都承諾把接近所有的商品的關稅降到零。此外，十八年前大家對服務業自由化還很陌生，開放得很保守；而在過去十年，各國為吸引外資、促進服務業現代化，都大幅鬆綁外資限制。

這種「關稅從十到零」及服務業開放的優惠，僅ＦＴＡ締約國可享有。台灣在幾無ＦＴＡ、未加入ＴＰＰ的情況下，只能繼續適用十八年前早已過時的進入條件，相對於韓、日等競爭對手，我國居於下風的劣勢絲毫未變。因此，雖然ＷＴＯ有所突破，但台灣被邊緣化的威脅仍舊存在，絲毫沒有可以鬆懈的空間。