Trade Policy Note Final-rev08 - Development

services liberalization in these agreements, particularly as many new opportunities are
not provided for the short-term movement of persons (GATS Mode 4).
FTAs with the North
From the perspective of national development strategy, the advantages and
disadvantages of FTAs differ considerably according to the choice of partners. In FTA
negotiations with developed countries, developing countries often find themselves
confronted with requests for commitments that may undermine their WTO rights
and/or include commitments in areas which developing countries have not accepted
as part of the WTO agenda. Thus, where the main objective of developing countries in
FTAs is to obtain free access for their key export products, and avoid or preempt
negative margins of tariff preferences in favour of their competitors, they find
themselves subject to commitments of an even wider scope and deeper intrusiveness
than those in WTO agreements. Some developed countries appear to be pursuing a
parallel trade agenda in their FTAs, aimed at achieving commitments form their FTA
partners that they have been unable to achieve in the multilateral context. In some
cases, the developed partner follows a set “template” which it seeks to apply in each
FTA it negotiates. 109
…and the South
The expanding FTAs among developing countries generally adopt a different format.
They may contain an “early harvest” of items to be liberalized immediately, with
many issues left to be negotiated in subsequent stages. In some cases, this early
harvest includes textiles and horticultural products normally considered as sensitive in
North South FTAs. Commitments on services follow the GATS positive list format,
adding regional and bilateral commitments to the multilateral schedules. 110 The
proliferation of bilateral FTAs with regional trading partners is often conducted under
a broad framework agreement inte nded to eventually lead to extensive regional
integration. Individual countries and groupings of developing countries are entering
into FTAs with ext ra regional developing partners. These usually contain considerably
flexibility and are aimed at gaining a foothold in new, and growing markets.
109 See www.ustr.gov/TradeAgreements/bilateral (USA FTAs), and www.ecdpm.org (EU FTAs), and
www.bilaterals.org for overview of all FTA negotiations and links to many sources .
110 See Marconini, Mario, Acordos Regionais e o Comercio de Servicos: normativa internacional e
interesse brasiliero (Sao Paulo: Aduanieras 2003).
57