Over at Vox, economists Aaditya Mattoo and Arvind Subramanian offer more details on their proposed "crisis round," as compared to the Doha agenda:
Table 1. Commitments under the Doha Round and the proposed Crisis Round
Sector / Area |
Doha Agenda's likely outcome |
Crisis round agenda |
Agricultural tariffs (developing) |
Some liberalisation, but bound tariff rates above current applied levels |
No liberalisation, but bound tariff rates at current applied levels |
Manufacturing tariffs (developing) |
Some liberalisation, but bound tariff rates above current applied levels |
No liberalisation, but bound tariff rates at current applied levels |
Agricultural tariffs (industrial) |
Some liberalisation, but bound tariff rates above current applied levels |
No liberalisation, but bound tariff rates at current applied levels |
Manufacturing tariffs (industrial) |
Some liberalisation |
No liberalisation |
Services |
Limited increase in scope of bound tariff rates |
All countries bound at current access |
Anti-dumping |
Limited changes to rules; may even lead to permissiveness |
Raise de minimis dumping margin and de minimis volume of dumped imports |
Government procurement |
No change |
All countries to bind existing procurement regime on MFN basis |
State aid in manufacturing |
No change |
Bind at current levels |
Environment-related trade measures |
No change |
No trade-related actions pending conclusions of global climate change negotiations |
I have one nit-picky question. They say: "First, the agenda would be confined to the key protectionist measures. These include trade restrictions and subsidies in agriculture, manufacturing and services, anti-dumping actions, preferential government procurement, and environmentally motivated trade interventions." With regard to the last one, if the trade restrictions are "environmentally motivated," are they really "protectionist"? Is what they really mean that there is an effect on trade, even though there is no protectionist intent?