It is great to see the WTO’s news item on 12 April celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (see https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news19_e/tpr_12apr19_e.htm and https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tprm30_e.htm )
While it is good to take note of the good work being done and the benefits of the TPTM in increasing transparency, it is also a time to reflect on how much better the TPRM could be. It could be used to quantify the size of the wealth transfers from consumers to favoured producers.
For example, see the Report prepared by the GATT Secretariat released toward the end of the Uruguay Round which set out how much certain policies of several countries were costing consumers. The title of the report is
Trade, the Uruguay Round and the Consumer
The Sting: How Governments Buy Votes on Trade with the Consumer’s Money
Which was released under cover of an issue of “News of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Negotiations” dated 11 August 1993, (GATT, Doc No NUR 060) with the heading:
“Sutherland Calls on Governments to Come Clean on Consumer Interests in the Uruguay Round
Consumers should demand an end to high prices for no purpose”
All TPRM reports should contain similar quantitative estimates of the extent to which governments are imposing costs on consumers and tax payers to pay for the government making transfers of wealth to favoured firms, and sectors. If the GATT Secretariat comprised of so few staff could do this useful work, then the comparatively much better resourced WTO secretariat should be able to do similarly useful work to further enhance the transparency of the effects of trade policies. It does not seem to be the case that the politicians and general public in 2019 have any better grasp of the situation than the politicians and general public had in 1993. So the TPRM should have an educational role, beyond its current role.
GATT Doc NUR 060 is available on via the WTO websites “Documents and Resources” page at https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/res_e.htm
Look to the left margin to see the words GATT Documents. https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/gattdocs_e.htm
Look to Browse by symbols, choose “N” Click and go to https://docs.wto.org/gattdocs/q/n.htm
Then go to NUR 060 at https://docs.wto.org/gattdocs/q/UR/NUR/060.pdf
