![]() Special government procurement arrangements and emergency mutual recognition of technical regulations could play a key role. ![]() Rules on export/import restrictions are particularly important to avoid severe shortage in essential goods and services. Consideration could be given to agreeing on preliminary lists and criteria for “essential” goods and services for different types of crises, building on existing international instruments where available. Specific and comprehensive crisis-mitigation provisions matter for trade agreementsĭedicated provisions addressing trade in times of crisis/emergency could provide, for instance, a clear but flexible definition of “emergency situation”. Keeping in mind the need to preserve policy space in trade agreements, particularly for developing countries, to allow them to deal with crises and minimize trade disruptions, some key insights have emerged from this exercise. All contributions are available in an online repository and a webinar series based on the best-quality contributions was held in November 2020. ![]() Response to the call was beyond expectations, with more than 200 proposals submitted, resulting in over 60 final contributions by more than 130 (co-)authors, which went through reviews and evaluation by a core group of experts. While the initiative is still on-going, a key deliverable in 2020 was the organization of a fully online global policy hackathon.ĭesigned to gather innovative ideas on how to improve trade agreements and build back better, it started with a global call to trade experts from governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector to submit written contributions within 50 days. They have highlighted the limitations of existing trade agreements, including over 184 regional trade agreements signed by economies in Asia and the Pacific, as well as the multilateral trade rules, in providing guidance on how to respond to emergency or crisis situations in a least trade-restrictive fashion.Īgainst this backdrop, in an effort to accelerate recovery from this crisis and better prepare for the future, UNCTAD together with The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the World Trade Organization (WTO), other UN regional commissions, as well as CUTS and other partners, launched a global initiative on model provisions for trade in times of crisis and pandemic in regional and other trade agreements in May 2020. While such reactions to an unexpected global pandemic are understandable, they are certainly not optimal. Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have heavily disrupted trade and supply chains, with many countries putting in place ad hoc trade-restrictive measures, seemingly without any concern about their effect on trading partners – at least during the early stages of the crisis.
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