NewsApril 10 , 2017
Pakistan elected to body on WTO law
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been unanimously elected to the six-member Management Committee of 89-member Geneva based inter-governmental organization called Advisory Center for WTO Law (ACWL).Apart from Pakistan’s Ambassador to WTO Dr Syed Tauqir Shah, who has now been elected to the management committee, its other five members include Dr Stuart Robinson, former law professor at the Graduate Institute of the University of Geneva, Eduardo Ernesto Yurt, Ambassador of Guatemala to the WTO, Shameem Ahsan, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the WTO, Dr Shin-Yuan Lai, Permanent Representative of Chinese Taipei to the WTO and John Weekes, ex-Ambassador of Canada to the WTO.
The ACWL has assisted Pakistan in almost all the trade disputes brought to WTO. It is presently handling the two ongoing disputes filed by Pakistan at WTO against the European Union and South Africa on PET (a chemical used in making mineral water and beverage bottles) products and cement respectively. It is also presently conducting a custom designed video-link course on WTO law for officials of the commerce ministry of Pakistan.
The ACWL advises its developing members and least-developed countries (LDCs) on all issues relating to WTO law. Eleven developed, 44 LDCs and 34 developing countries including Pakistan are members of the ACWL.
These developed members are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Britain, Switzerland and Australia. The ACWL was created through an agreement with the government of Switzerland that accords it privileges and immunities similar to those enjoyed by the WTO and other intergovernmental organizations in Geneva.
The ACWL’s mission is to provide developing countries and LDCs with the legal capacity necessary to enable them to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the WTO. A key benefit of WTO membership is that a WTO member can trade with others in a secure and predictable rules-based multilateral trading system.
The ACWL gives free legal advice and training on WTO law and provides support in WTO dispute settlement proceedings at discounted rates. These services are available to the developing member countries of the ACWL and to 44 LDCs that are members of the WTO or are in the process of acceding to the WTO.
The ACWL enables these countries to obtain a full understanding of their rights and obligations under WTO law and to have an equal opportunity to defend their interests in WTO dispute settlement proceedings.
A WTO member can seize these opportunities only if it understands its rights and obligations as a WTO member, and if it understands how the WTO conducts negotiations, takes decisions and settles disputes.
For developing countries and LDCs with inadequate human and financial resources that knowledge is difficult to acquire. The WTO law consists of a complex web of over 20 agreements, which together with the attached member-specific schedules of concessions and commitments cover more than 20,000 pages. It also includes the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1947 (GATT), all the decisions adopted by the Contracting Parties to the GATT and the jurisprudence of the adjudicative bodies of the GATT and the WTO, contained in over 300 reports.
Over the past 20 years, the WTO law has become increasingly complex. While most developed countries have “in-house” legal expertise that enables them to understand WTO law and to participate fully in the WTO legal system, most developing countries and LDCs do not. Thus, the ACWL was created to provide these countries with this legal capacity and to help them to understand fully their rights and obligations under WTO law.
At present, 78 countries -- roughly half of the membership of the WTO -- are entitled to the services of the ACWL. Since its establishment in 2001, the ACWL has provided these countries with over 1800 legal opinions free of charge, has conducted twelve annual training courses for Geneva-based delegates, and has trained 23 lawyers as part of its Secondment Programme for Government lawyers.
In addition, it has assisted developing countries and LDCs in 44 WTO dispute settlement proceedings at modest fees. Thus, the ACWL has become an organization that pools the collective experience of developing countries and LDCs in WTO legal matters and makes that expertise available to each of those countries. The ACWL helps ensure that the benefits of WTO law are shared among all members of the WTO.
Another key area of activity of ACWL is capacity building of developing and LDC members. The ACWL’s main training programme comprises three annual courses. The first covers the basic principles of WTO law; the second the WTO agreements relating to trade remedies, trade in services and trade-related intellectual property rights; and the third the WTO dispute settlement procedures.
Through its Secondment Programme for Trade Lawyers, the ACWL provides government lawyers entrusted with functions relating to the legal aspects of trade policy the opportunity to broaden their professional experience in the field of WTO law by joining the ACWL’s staff.
The programme aims to provide the participants with theoretical training and practical experience in WTO law as well as an opportunity to participate actively in WTO dispute settlement proceedings. The ACWL also provides country-specific training courses.
The ACWL’s institutional structure consists of the General Assembly, the Management Board and the Executive Director. The General Assembly comprises the representatives of the members of the ACWL and of the LDCs entitled to the services of the ACWL. It oversees the functioning of the ACWL, monitors the ACWL’s finances and adopts the annual budget.
The ACWL is co-administered by its developed and developing country members through the management board: three nominated by the developing country members; two by the developed country members and one by the LDCs. The board takes decisions necessary to ensure the efficient and effective operation of the ACWL, oversees the management of the ACWL Endowment Fund, and reports to the General Assembly.
Ambassador Dr Tauqir Shah belonging to Pakistan Administrative Service or DMG is a fellow of LEAD International -- a global sustainable development think tank; has served on the Board of Governors of LEAD Pakistan; is Watson Environment Fellow from global programme of UN Environment Programme and Brown University Rhode Island, US; holds Sustainability Challenge Foundation Fellowship in Netherlands specializing in negotiation skills for sustainable development; holds Fleishman Civil Society Fellowship from Duke University North Carolina, focusing on role of civil society in Global Governance; and was also unanimously elected to chair the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment in 2016.
Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk
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