- home
- trade topics
- trade policy reviews
- list of reviews
- european communities 2004
PRESS
RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/238
27 October 2004
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
A generally open trade regime, but further agriculture liberalization would promote world trade
The European Communities (EC) has a generally liberal regime for non-agricultural products and has granted market access to developing countries under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) scheme or the Cotonu Agreement, and to LDCs under the 揺verything but arms?(EBA) initiative, according to a report on the trade policies and practices of the EC released by the WTO Secretariat.
However, further liberalization of the EC抯 agriculture, notably
through simplification of its tariff structure and reduction of duty
rates, as well as the downsizing of the levels of support, would
substantially contribute to the promotion of world trade.
The report notes that despite the continued decoupling of payments from
production, the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) falls
short of liberalizing EC抯 agriculture. Moreover, the report identifies
certain areas where further harmonization within the EC may be needed;
these include internal tax rates, some services, and customs procedures.
The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.
The following documents are available in MS Word format.
- Secretariat report
> Contents and summary observations (12 pages, 97KB)
> Economic environment (15 pages, 429KB)
> Trade regime (21 pages, 230KB)
> Trade policies and practices by measure (47 pages, 726KB)
> Trade policies by sector (60 pages, 671KB)
> Appendix tables (70 pages, 4435KB)
> Corrigendum (3 pages, 46KB)
- Government report (20 pages,
150KB)
- Chairperson's concluding remarks
- Minutes
of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
Note back to top
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries?trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO抯 full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB抯 meetings are published shortly afterwards.
Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Gen鑦e 21 and through the on-line bookshop.
The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.
Schedule of forthcoming reviews back to top
Brazil : 29 November and 1
December 2004
Switzerland/Liechtenstein : 15 and 17 December 2004
Jamaica : 17 and 19 January 2005