A new report from the WTO’s Committee on Rules of Origin highlights the work of members in addressing the concerns of least developed countries (LDCs) with regards to preferential rules of origin in favour of LDCs. It urges further work to facilitate the use of these trade preferences by LDCs.
The report, which was adopted by the Committee on 24 November, will be forwarded to a 14-15 December General Council meeting for consideration.
It calls on the Committee to continue its work to ensure that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from LDCs are transparent and simple and contribute to facilitating market access, in line with the Uruguay Round Decision on Measures in Favour of Least Developed Countries as well as the subsequent 2013 Bali and 2015 Nairobi Decisions on Preferential Rules of Origin for LDCs.
“Members will continue and, to the extent possible, intensify their work on identifying and where possible, agreeing on best practices on preferential rules of origin and related administrative requirements,” the report adds.
The chair of the Committee, Mr Elia Mtweve of Tanzania, described the report as an “important milestone” which showed the readiness of WTO members to address the challenges faced by LDCs.
He also underlined that work in the Committee would continue, including with the discussion of a workplan to intensify, to the extent possible, the work of the Committee on preferential rules of origin.
The report outlines the work conducted by the Committee from 2017 to October 2023 on preferential rules of origin, highlighting the main issues discussed and the state of play reached on the main areas of this work.
It also underlines lessons learned and discusses practices with respect to the use of preferential rules of origin. In addition, it provides guidance for the future work of the Committee to better identify possible best practices and lessons learned.
The report notes that the Committee has made substantial progress in terms of the availability of information regarding preferential rules of origin applied to LDCs in the context of non-reciprocal trade preferences as well as improving the availability of data on preferential tariffs and imports.
In regard to the latter, however, “significant gaps remain” that impact the ability of the WTO Secretariat to conduct a comprehensive analysis of current rates of preference utilization.
One significant gap that has emerged concerns the availability of information on imports entering under “other” preferential schemes, the report notes, whether these be regional trade agreements, other preferential arrangements, or special regimes which offer tariff concessions.
“Such data is needed for a full analysis of trade between LDCs and preference-granting Members.”
