RTAs and South South trade cooperation

Regional trade blocs are also helpful in expanding trade.

Regional trade arrangements

Preferences, South South trade, and regional and global trade agreements

South South and intra regional trade in particular would benefit from multilateral trade facilitation agreements.

The free trade area foresees free trade in manufactured goods and a progressive liberalization of trade in agricultural products.

4. Promoting trade and enhancing intraregional and

6. The international trading scene was characterized by a process of continuous trade negotiations at the multilateral, regional and subregional levels, as well as by the rapid expansion of trade flows.

Greater Arab Free Trade Area

Regional Trade and Investment Review

The last years have seen a growth of RTAs covering services trade.

There was a need to improve African intraregional trade, and also South South trade, in which Asia already played a major role.

122. At present there are no trade unions in companies within the Free Trade Zone, although there are no legal restrictions against the formation of trade unions there.

UNCTAD apos s new mandate was in response to emerging transport and trade patterns indicating increased regional trade.

Trade facilitation and regional integration

56. With regard to international trade, the countries of the Rio Group had chosen to open up on both the trade and financial fronts, within the region and with other regions of the world, through active participation in the Uruguay Round multilateral trade negotiations, which had given birth to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Today some 50 per cent of world trade takes place within regional trade agreements.

Regional trade agreements and South South cooperation

Section 11 Trade and Regional Integration Division

Trade, regional economic cooperation and integration

(c) Economic and trade issues of concern to the region

Research by the UNCTAD secretariat has shown that such arrangements are likely to be strongly trade expanding for developing regions generally, and for sub Saharan Africa in particular, increasing both intra regional trade and trade with third countries.

29. This programme seeks to develop policy options that will maximize the benefits of trade to the poor within SAARC countries, as these countries expand intraregional trade and move from the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement to a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).

Trade and transport facilitation and development Trade facilitation and regional integration Private sector expectations from the WTO negotiations on trade facilitation Implementation of trade facilitation measures Conclusions and the way forward

They invite the remaining Arab States that have not yet joined GAFTA to do so without delay.

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Trade and Equity

The right to form trade unions in the Free Trade Zone

interregional cooperation

Recent new generation WTO plus regional trade agreements covered not only trade in goods but also other regulatory areas.

As other barriers to trade are removed by the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), the expansion of joint venture investment and intraregional trade has become increasingly dependent on the abolition of tax obstacles to cross border activities.

(i) Commodity dependent developing countries should consider the relative advantages of regional arrangements and regional and South South trade as a means of diversification and as a stepping stone to global trade.

Bearing in mind the primacy of the multilateral trading system, and the importance of open regional economic integration, regional trade agreements should be outward oriented and supportive of the multilateral trading system.

In February 1996, the World Trade Organization decided to establish a Committee on Regional Trade Agreements.

They had even put in place free trade zones.

Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern No longer in

The growth of RTAs has accelerated in recent years, with new RTAs (such as NAFTA and MERCOSUR) being established, others expanded (e.g. the EU) and formal links being established among certain existing RTAs, so that RTAs cover an increasingly large share of world trade potentially discriminatory against the excluded countries.

While intraregional trade had grown in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, intra African trade had declined at a rate of 9 per cent during the first half of the 1990s.

See OECD, The relationship between regional trade agreements and the multilateral trading system, TD TC WP(2002)19 FINAL, and World Trade Organization, Annual Report 1997, vol. 1, Special Topic Trade and Competition Policy.

It was generally agreed that UNCITRAL should continue its work on the preparation of legal standards that could bring predictability to electronic commerce, thereby enhancing trade in all regions.

ITC International Trade Centre UNCTAD World Trade Organization

Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Mexico, Mexico City, 27 November 2000.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry reckons that a network of FTAs can be designed to support the business community in moving up the value add ladder and knowledge chain.

Both in Africa and the Arab region, intraregional trade remained mostly stagnant for decades representing some 10 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, of their trade volume.

In that view, the primary emphasis in regional integration is on trade liberalization, involving across the board removal of tariffs through the formation of a free trade area or customs union.

ITC has a South South trade promotion programme centred on bringing buyers and sellers together at well prepared regional and interregional conferences.