A joint communication prepared to that purpose at the initiative of the European Union and co-signed by Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Republic of Korea and Switzerland is being discussed today in Geneva at the meeting of the WTO Trade Policy Review Body.
The signatories are committed to lead by example. They will notify all measures as early as practicable, reduce to the extent possible the number and duration of new trade measures and actively contribute to the monitoring of trade measures carried by the WTO Secretariat. They also invite other WTO members to implement the same level of transparency.
The signatories have also encouraged the WTO Secretariat to intensify the monitoring and increase the frequency of reporting, including on economic support measures. They have also called on the WTO Secretariat to provide technical assistance to Members that may require support to comply with their transparency obligations during the pandemic.
This communication delivers on one of the six policy actions identified in the June 2020 statement ‘Focusing Action on Covid-19’ by the Ottawa Group of 13 like-minded WTO partners.
For more information
Communication on Covid-19: Transparency of trade-related measures
Details
- Publication date
- 24 July 2020
- Author
- Directorate-General for Trade
- Trade topics
- Policy analysis