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Cancun Trade and Development Symposium
Simposio
sobre Comercio y Desarrollo, Cancún
Symposium sur le Commerce et le Développement, Cancun
Session 1.3
STANDARDS AND MARKET ACCESS
"Northern
Consumers - Southern Producers: The need for an alliance"
11 September 2003, 9:30 - 13:30pm,
Picasso Room
Synopsis |
Agenda | Speakers
Bios | Organisers | Documents
Synopsis
Technical
barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)
form the core of non-tariff measures applied by both developed and developing
countries. TBT measures are mandatory technical regulations laid down
by governments on imported products for reasons of security, health
or environment. SPS measures are those that are applied to protect human,
animal and plant life or health and they may be applied in the form
of laws, regulations, requirements or procedures.
Most
governments have realised that trade restrictions of this nature may
be necessary and appropriate to ensure food security as well as animal
and health protection. However, the increasing and arbitrary use of
such measures by developed countries, often to protect domestic industry,
has caused great concern among developing countries. Further, firms
from developing and less-developed countries often face considerable
difficulty in conforming to the high standards and technical regulations
set by the industrialised countries. The problems of compliance could
be varied, and these include: high financial costs involved, costs associated
with product redesign and creation of appropriate administrative systems,
lack of timely and adequate information and subsequent transaction costs,
difficulties involved in testing and monitoring, and the irrelevance
of foreign standards to local conditions.
In
view of the above, Consumer Unity and Trust Society Centre for International
Trade, Economics & Environment will organise a session on Standards
and Market Access at the Cancun Trade and Development Symposium.
The
objectives of the discussions are:
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Generate awareness
amongst Northern consumers of the negative impact of such non-tariff
measures on developing countries’ exports.
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Discuss ways
in which greater participation of developing countries in international
standard setting bodies can be facilitated.
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Discuss the
main concerns regarding implementation-related issues in the SPS
and TBT at the World Trade Organisation.
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Inquire
further how developing countries can make effective use of the technical
and capacity building and dispute settlement provisions in the WTO
framework.
Synopsis | Agenda | Speakers Bios
| Organisers | Documents
Agenda
| 9:30 |
Moderator:
Pradeep S. Mehta (Consumer Unity & Trust Society)
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| 9:45 |
Interactive
Panel Discussion
Panellists
(Tentative):
A.C.
Muthaiah (Federation for Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industries)
Phil
Evans (Consumers Association)
Manoj
Joshi, (Ministry of Commerce, Government of India) (invited)
Lakshmi
Puri (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)
(invited)
Debapriya
Bhattacharya (Centre for Policy Dialogue) (invited)
Dominique
Njinkeu (International Lawyers and Economists Against
Poverty)
Sachin
Chaturvedi (Research and Information System for the Non
Aligned and Other Developing Countries) Standards
and Agricultural Exports of Developing Countries: Case of
South Asia
Dominique
Forest (Bureau Europeen des Unions Consommateurs) (invited)
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Synopsis | Agenda | Speakers Bios
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Speakers Bios
Pradeep
S. Mehta is the founding Secretary General of the Jaipur-based
Consumer Unity & Trust Society, one of the largest consumer groups
in India. Mr. Mehta serves on several policy-making bodies of the
Government of India, related to trade, environment and consumer affairs.
A.C.Muthiah
is the President of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
He is chairman of SPIC Ltd. and a member of the Prime Minister’s
Advisory Council on trade and Industry. Dr. Muthiah was President
of the Southern India Chamber of Commerce & Industry for 8 years.
He is also the President of the Indian Council of Arbitration.
Sachin
Chaturvedi has been working on intellectual property rights, trade
and environment-related issues in the WTO. His areas of specialisation
include the economics of biotechnology and biodiversity. He is the
author of two books and has published research articles in various
prestigious journals.
Phil
Evans is Principal Policy Advisor at Consumers Association, UK.
Jim
Murray is Director of BEUC, the Bureau Européen des Unions
de Consommateurs since June 1990. He was Director of Consumer Affairs
and Fair Trade in Ireland from 1979 to 1990, responsible, inter alia,
for the implementation of a wide range of consumer protection and
competition laws, including laws on misleading advertising, food labelling,
product safety and restrictive business practices.
Dominique
Njinkeu is the first Executive Director of the ILEAP initiative
(International Lawyers and Economists against Poverty). He was Deputy
Director of Research at the African Economic Research Consortium in
Nairobi, Kenya, and had an extensive career in the field of development,
with particular reference to macroeconomics and development financing;
linkages between trade, regional integration and poverty reduction;
and international negotiations.
Ratnakar
Adhikari is the Executive Director of the Nepal-based South Asia
Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE).
Synopsis | Agenda | Speakers
Bios | Organisers | Documents
Organisers
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Consumer
Unity and Trust Society - Centre for International Trade, Economics
& Environment
Session
organised by CUTS-CITEE in cooperation with: Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Research and Information
System for the Non Aligned and Other Developing Countries (RIS),
Consumers Association (CA), Bureau Europeen des Unions Consommateurs
(BEUC) and International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty
(ILEAP).
About
CUTS-CITEE: Established in 1983, Consumer Unity & Trust
Society started off as a consumer protection organisation in
Rajasthan, India. Since then it has been working in several
areas of public interest at the grassroot, national, subcontinental
& international levels. In the early 1990s, when the negotiations
for the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) were at their peak, CUTS got involved in the issues
of international trade and economics. After gaining much experience,
CUTS launched the CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics
& Environment in 1996. Its aim is to become a global standard
institution for research and advocacy on trade issues affecting
countries in the South.
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Synopsis | Agenda | Speakers
Bios | Organisers | Documents
Background Documents
For more information
please contact tds@ictsd.ch.
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