The Arab World and the new multilateral trade agenda : trade in services and investment provisions in the WTO

Abstract EN

The current trends in the world economy that are fuelling globalization and generating closer economic cooperation among nations, are intensifying pressure on policy interaction in traditional areas of multilateral cooperation.

The most obvious manifestations of this have involved governments in continuing efforts to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, to extend the coverage of liberalization efforts, and to sharpen trade rules including those relating to matters like safeguards, subsidies and countervailing duties, and antidumping.

In addition, closer economic integration among nation states has "internationalized" a wide range of policy domains that previously were either simply neglected, or considered an exclusively national preserve, or else were subjected only to comity-like coordination and consultation arrangements.

As a result, major multilateral initiatives have led to negotiations, and in some instances, agreements in new areas such as trade in services, protection of intellectual property rights and investments.

The paper reviews the recent multilateral agreements on services and investment-related issues and analyzes their implications for Arab countries.

The paper also identifies areas for increasing the level of obligations accepted by Arab governments without undertaking any adjustment to the structure of the GATS