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World Trade Organization

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Economics

             World Trade Organization
      Headquarters        Geneva, Switzerland
   Membership         149 member states
   Official languages English, French and Spanish
   Secretary-General  Pascal Lamy
   Formation          1995
   Official website   www.wto.int

   The World Trade Organization (WTO, French: Organisation mondiale du
   commerce, Spanish: Organización Mundial del Comercio) is an
   international, multilateral organization, which sets the rules for the
   global trading system and resolves disputes between its member states;
   all of whom are signatories to its approximately 30 agreements.

   WTO headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland. Pascal Lamy is the
   current Director-General taking over from the previous Director-General
   Supachai Panitchpakdi on September 1, 2005. As of November 7, 2006,
   there are 149 members in the organization with Vietnam being the latest
   to join.

   Since its inception in 1995, the WTO has been a major focus for
   protests by civil society groups in many countries. See criticism.

History

   The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 proposed the creation of an
   International Trade Organization (ITO) to establish rules and
   regulations for trade between countries. Members of the UN Conference
   on Trade and Employment in Havana agreed to the ITO charter in March
   1948, but ratification was blocked by the U.S. Senate (WTO, 2004b).
   Some historians have argued that the failure may have resulted from
   fears within the American business community that the International
   Trade Organization could be used to regulate (rather than liberate) big
   business (Lisa Wilkins, 1997; Helen Milner 1993).

   Only one element of the ITO survived: the General Agreement on Tariffs
   and Trade (GATT). Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under the GATT
   before the eighth round - known as the Uruguay Round — which began in
   1986 and concluded in 1995 with the establishment of the WTO. The GATT
   principles and agreements were adopted by the WTO, which was charged
   with administering and extending them and approximately 30 other
   agreements and resolving trade disputes between member countries.
   Unlike the GATT, the WTO has a substantial institutional structure.

Mission

   The WTO states that its aims are to increase international trade by
   promoting lower trade barriers and providing a platform for the
   negotiation of trade and to their business.

   Principles of the trading system

   The WTO discussions should follow these fundamental principles of
   trading.
    1. A trading system should be free of discrimination in the sense that
       one country cannot privilege a particular trading partner above
       others within the system, nor can it discriminate against foreign
       products and services.
    2. A trading system should tend toward more freedom, that is, toward
       fewer trade barriers (tariffs and non-tariff barriers).
    3. A trading system should be predictable, with foreign companies and
       governments reassured that trade barriers will not be raised
       arbitrarily and that markets will remain open.
    4. A trading system should tend toward greater competition.
    5. A trading system should be more accommodating for less developed
       countries, giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility,
       and more privileges.

Formal Structure

   According to WTO rules, all WTO members may participate in all
   councils, committees, etc., except Appellate Body, Dispute Settlement
   panels, and plurilateral committees. In practice, most of the WTO's
   decisions are made in informal meetings, often called " Green Room"
   meetings, to which most members are not invited. See criticism.

   Highest level: Ministerial Conference

   The topmost decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial
   Conference, which has to meet at least every two years. It brings
   together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or separate
   customs territories. The Ministerial Conference can make decisions on
   all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.

   Second level: General Council

   The daily work of the ministerial conference is handled by three
   groups: the General Council, the Dispute Settlement Body, and the Trade
   Policy Review Body. All three consist of the same membership -
   representatives of all WTO member states - but each meets under
   different rules.

   1. The General Council- is the WTO’s highest-level decision-making body
   in Geneva, meeting regularly to carry out the functions of the WTO. It
   has representatives (usually ambassadors or equivalent) from all member
   governments and has the authority to act on behalf of the ministerial
   conference which only meets about every two years. The council acts on
   behalf on the Ministerial Council on all of the WTO affairs. The
   current chairman is Amb. Eirik Glenne (Norway).

   2. The Dispute Settlement Body - Made up of all member governments,
   usually represented by ambassadors or equivalent. The current
   chairperson is H.E. Mr. Muhamad Noor Yacob (Malaysia).

   3. The Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB) - the WTO General Council meets
   as the Trade Policy Review Body to undertake trade policy reviews of
   Members under the TRPM. The TPRB is thus open to all WTO Members. The
   current chairperson is H.E. Ms. Claudia Uribe (Colombia).

   Third level: Councils for Trade

   The Councils for Trade work under the General Council. There are three
   councils - Council for Trade in Goods, Council for Trade-Related
   Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and Council for Trade in
   Services - each council works in different fields. Apart from these
   three councils, six other bodies report to the General Council
   reporting on issues such as trade and development, the environment,
   regional trading arrangements and administrative issues.

   1. Council for Trade in Goods- The workings of the General Agreement on
   Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which covers international trade in goods, are
   the responsibility of the Council for Trade in Goods. It is made up of
   representatives from all WTO member countries. The current chairperson
   is Amb. Yonov Frederick Agah (Nigeria).

   2. Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights-
   Information on intellectual property in the WTO, news and official
   records of the activities of the TRIPS Council, and details of the
   WTO’s work with other international organizations in the field.

   3. Council for Trade in Services- The Council for Trade in Services
   operates under the guidance of the General Council and is responsible
   for overseeing the functioning of the General Agreement on Trade in
   Services (GATS). It’s open to all WTO members, and can create
   subsidiary bodies as required.

   Fourth level: Subsidiary Bodies

   There are subsidiary bodies under each of the three councils.

   1. The Goods Council- subsidiary under the Council for Trade in Goods.
   It has 11 committees consisting of all member countries, dealing with
   specific subjects such as agriculture, market access, subsidies,
   anti-dumping measures and so on. Committees include the following:
     * Information Technology Agreement (ITA) Committee
     * State Trading Enterprises
     * Textiles Monitoring Body - Consists of a chairman and 10 members
       acting under it.
     * Groups dealing with notifications - process by which governments
       inform the WTO about new policies and measures in their countries.

   2. The Services Council- subsidiary under the Council for Trade in
   Services which deals with financial services, domestic regulations and
   other specific commitments.

   3. Dispute Settlement panels and Appellate Body- subsidiary under the
   Dispute Settlement Body to resolve disputes and the Appellate Body to
   deal with appeals.

   Other committees
     * Committees on
          + Trade and Environment
          + Trade and Development (Subcommittee on Least-Developed
            Countries)
          + Regional Trade Agreements
          + Balance of Payments Restrictions
          + Budget, Finance and Administration
     * Working parties on
          + Accession
     * Working groups on
          + Trade, debt and finance
          + Trade and technology transfer

Trade negotiations

   While most international organizations operate on a one country, one
   vote or even a weighted voting basis, many WTO decisions, such as
   adopting agreements (and revisions to them) are officially determined
   by consensus of all member states. The advantage of consensus
   decision-making is that it encourages efforts to find the most widely
   acceptable decision. Main disadvantages include large time requirements
   and many rounds of negotiation to develop a consensus decision, and the
   tendency for final agreements to use ambiguous language on contentious
   points that makes future interpretation of treaties difficult.

   In reality, WTO negotiations proceed not by consensus of all members,
   but by a process of informal negotiations between small groups of
   countries. Such negotiations are often called "Green Room" negotiations
   (after the colour of the WTO Director-General's Office in Geneva), or
   "Mini-Ministerials", when they occur in other countries. These
   processes have been regularly criticized by many of the WTO's
   developing country members which are often totally excluded from the
   negotiations.

   Richard Steinberg (2002) argues that although the WTO's consensus
   governance model provides law-based initial bargaining, trading rounds
   close through power-based bargaining favouring Europe and the United
   States, and may not lead to Pareto improvement.

Doha round

   The WTO began the current round of negotiations, the Doha round, at the
   Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. The
   talks have been highly contentious and agreement has not been reached,
   despite continuing talks at Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancún in
   2003 and at the Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong on December
   13 - December 18, 2005 and in Geneva - July 2006.

Dispute resolution

   Apart from hosting negotiations on trade rules, one of the principal
   functions of the WTO is to act as an arbiter of disputes between member
   states. Member states can bring disputes to the WTO's Dispute
   Settlement Body (DSB) if they believe another member has breached WTO
   rules. The DSB is the WTO General Council acting in a specialized role
   under a separate chair. It administers the Understanding on Rules and
   Procedures Governing Settlement of Disputes (DSU), which regulates
   dispute settlement under all covered WTO agreements.

   Disputes are heard by a Dispute Settlement Panel, usually made up of
   three trade officials. The panels meet in secret and are not required
   to alert national parliaments that their laws have been challenged by
   another country.

   Either side can appeal a panel's ruling. Appeals have to be based on
   points of law such as legal interpretation -they cannot reexamine
   existing evidence or examine new issues. Each appeal is heard by three
   members of a permanent seven-member Appellate Body set up by the
   Dispute Settlement Body and broadly representing the range of WTO
   membership. Members of the Appelate Body have four-year terms. They
   have to be individuals with recognized standing in the field of law and
   international trade, not affiliated with any government. The appeal can
   uphold, modify or reverse the panel's legal findings and conclusions.
   Normally appeals should not last more than 60 days, with an absolute
   maximum of 90 days. The Dispute Settlement Body has to accept or reject
   the appeals report within 30 days - and rejection is only possible by
   consensus.

   Unlike most other international organizations, the WTO has significant
   power to enforce its decisions through the authorization of trade
   sanctions against members which fail to comply with its decisions.

   The WTO dispute settlement system has been quite active since the
   founding of the organization. Proceedings have produced a huge corpus
   of what is sometimes called WTO law.

   If decisions of the Dispute Settlement Body are not complied with, it
   may authorize "retaliatory measures" - trade sanctions - in favour of
   the member(s) which brought the dispute. While such measures are a
   strong mechanism when applied by economically powerful states like the
   United States or the European Union, when applied by economically weak
   states against stronger ones, they can often be ignored. This has been
   the case, for example, with the March 2005 Appellate Body ruling in
   case DS 267, which declared US cotton subsidies illegal.

   In order to assist developing countries overcome their limited
   expertise in WTO law and assist them in the management of complex trade
   disputes, an Advisory Centre on WTO Law was established in 2001. The
   aim is to level the playing field for these countries and customs
   territories in the WTO system by enabling them to have a full
   understanding of their rights and obligations under the WTO Agreement.

Membership

   A world map of WTO participation: ██ members ██ members, dualy
   represented with the European Communities ██ observer, ongoing
   accession ██ observer ██ non-member, negotiations pending ██ non-member
   Enlarge
   A world map of WTO participation: ██ members ██ members, dualy
   represented with the European Communities ██ observer, ongoing
   accession ██ observer ██ non-member, negotiations pending ██ non-member
   Image:WTO by negotiations status Nov2006.png
   Status of WTO negotiations: ██ members (including dual-representation
   with the European Communities) ██ Draft Working Party Report or Factual
   Summary adopted ██ Goods and/or Services offers submitted ██ Memorandum
   on Foreign Trade Regime submitted ██ observer, negotiations to start
   later or no Memorandum on FTR submitted ██ frozen procedures or no
   negotiations in the last 3 years ██ no official interaction with the
   WTO

   The WTO has 150 members (76 members at its foundation and a further 74
   members joined over the following years). The 25 states of the European
   Union are represented also as the European Communities. Some
   non-sovereign autonomous entities of member states are included as
   separate members.

   The latest member to join was Vietnam (although the Kingdom of Tonga
   was admitted on 15 December, 2005 during the ministerial conference,
   Tonga has yet to finalize ratification of this admittance, and is not
   expected to do so until July 2007). A current list of members can be
   found here.

   The shortest accession negotiation was that of the Kyrgyz Republic,
   lasting 2 years and 10 months. The longest was that of the People's
   Republic of China, lasting 15 years and 5 months. Russia, having first
   applied to join GATT in 1993, is still in negotiations for membership.

   A number of non-members have been observers (31) at the WTO and are
   currently negotiating their membership: Algeria, Andorra, Azerbaijan,
   Bahamas (process frozen in 2001), Belarus, Bhutan, Bosnia and
   Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea (expected to start
   membership negotiations in 2007 or earlier), Ethiopia, Holy See
   (Vatican; special exception from the rules allows it to remain observer
   without starting negotiations), Iran ^1, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lao People's
   Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Montenegro, Russian Federation,
   Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles (negotiations frozen
   since 1998), Sudan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu (accession
   agreed in 2001, but not ratified by Vanuatu itself), and Yemen.
   ^1 Iran first applied to join the WTO in 1996, but the United States,
   accusing Tehran of supporting international terrorism, blocked its
   application 22 times. The U.S. said in March it would drop its veto on
   a start to Iran's accession negotiations. The U.S. has chosen not to
   block Iran's latest application for membership as part of a nuclear
   related deal.

   Syria first applied to join the WTO in October 2001, then again in
   January 2004 and September 2005. Its application for membership is
   currently still pending, waiting for WTO General Council approval to
   start negotiations.

   The following states (15) and territories (2) so far have no official
   interaction with the WTO: the states of Eritrea, Somalia, Liberia,
   Turkmenistan, North Korea, Monaco, San Marino, East Timor, Comoros,
   Nauru, Tuvalu, Palau, Kiribati, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and the
   territories of Western Sahara, Palestine.

Agreements

   The WTO oversees about 60 different agreements which have the status of
   international legal texts. Member countries must sign and ratify all
   WTO agreements on accession. A list of WTO agreements can be found here
   A discussion of some of the most important agreements follows.

Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)

   The AoA came into effect with the establishment of the WTO at the
   beginning of 1995. The AoA has three central concepts, or "pillars":
   domestic support, market access and export subsidies.

Domestic support

   The first pillar of the AoA is "domestic support". The AoA structures
   domestic support ( subsidies) into three categories or "boxes": a Green
   Box, an Amber Box and a Blue Box. The Green Box contains fixed payments
   to producers for environmental programmes, so long as the payments are
   "decoupled" from current production levels. The Amber Box contains
   domestic subsidies that governments have agreed to reduce but not
   eliminate. The Blue Box contains subsidies which can be increased
   without limit, so long as payments are linked to production-limiting
   programmes.

   The AoA's domestic support system currently allows Europe and the USA
   to spend $380 billion annually on agricultural subsidies alone. "It is
   often still argued that subsidies are needed to protect small farmers
   but, according to the World Bank, more than half of EU support goes to
   1% of producers while in the US 70% of subsidies go to 10% of
   producers, mainly agri-businesses." . The effect of these subsidies is
   to flood global markets with below-cost commodities, depressing prices
   and undercutting producers in poor countries – a practice known as
   dumping.

Market Access

   "Market access" is the second pillar of the AoA, and refers to the
   reduction of tariff (or non-tariff) barriers to trade by WTO
   member-states. The 1995 AoA required tariff reductions of:
     * 36% average reduction by developed countries, with a minimum per
       tariff line reduction of 15% over five years.
     * 24% average reduction by developing countries with a minimum per
       tariff line reduction of 10% over nine years.

   Least Developed Countries (LDCs) were exempted from tariff reductions,
   but either had to convert non–tariff barriers to tariffs—a process
   called tariffication—or "bind" their tariffs, creating a "ceiling"
   which could not be increased in future.

Export subsidies

   "Export subsidies" is the third pillar of the AoA. The 1995 AoA
   required developed countries to reduce export subsidies by at least 35%
   (by value) or by at least 21% (by volume) over the five years to 2000.

Criticism

   The AoA is criticized for reducing tariff protections for small farmers
   – a key source of income for developing countries – while allowing rich
   countries to continue to pay their farmers massive subsidies which
   developing countries cannot afford.

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement

Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) Agreement

   The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
   - also known as the SPS Agreement was negotiated during the Uruguay
   Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and entered into
   force with the establishment of the WTO at the beginning of 1995.

   Under the SPS agreement, the WTO sets constraints on member-states'
   policies relating to food safety (bacterial contaminants, pesticides,
   inspection and labelling) as well as animal and plant health (imported
   pests and diseases).

SPS & Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

   In 2003, the USA challenged a number of EU laws restricting the
   importation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), arguing they are
   “unjustifiable” and illegal under SPS agreement. In May 2006, the WTO's
   dispute resolution panel issued a complex ruling which took issue with
   some aspect's of the EU's regulation of GMOs, but dismissed many of the
   claims made by the USA. A summary of the decision can be found here

Criticism

   Quarantine policies plays an important role in ensuring the protection
   of human, animal and plant health. Yet under the SPS agreement,
   quarantine barriers can be a ‘technical trade barrier’ used to keep out
   foreign competitors.

   The SPS agreement gives the WTO the power to override a country's use
   of the precautionary principle – a principle which allows them to act
   on the side of caution if there is no scientific certainty about
   potential threats to human health and the environment. Under SPS rules,
   the burden of proof is on countries to demonstrate scientifically that
   something is dangerous before it can be regulated, even though
   scientists agree that it is impossible to predict all forms of damage
   posed by insects or pest plants.

Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)

   The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade - also known as the TBT
   Agreement is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization.
   It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on
   Tariffs and Trade, and entered into force with the establishment of the
   WTO at the beginning of 1995.

   The object of the TBT Agreement is to "to ensure that technical
   negotiations and standards, as well as testing and certification
   procedures, do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade"

Chronology

     * 1986-1994 - Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations culminating in the
       Marrakech Agreement that established the WTO.
     * January 1, 1995 - The WTO came into existence.
     * May 1, 1995 - Renato Ruggiero became director-general for a 4-year
       term.
     * December 9 - December 13, 1996 - The inaugural ministerial
       conference in Singapore. Disagreements between largely developed
       and developing economies emerged during this conference over four
       issues initiated by this conference, which led to them being
       collectively referred to as the " Singapore issues".
     * May 18 - May 20, 1998 - 2nd ministerial conference in Geneva,
       Switzerland.
     * September 1, 1999 - Mike Moore became director-general. The post
       had been fiercely contested; eventually a compromise was reached
       with Mike Moore and Supachai Panitchpakdi taking half each of a
       six-year term.
     * November 30 - December 3, 1999 - 3rd ministerial conference in
       Seattle, Washington, USA. The conference itself ended in failure,
       with massive demonstrations and riots drawing worldwide attention.
     * November 9 - November 13, 2001 - 4th ministerial conference in
       Doha, Qatar begins the Doha round. Issuance of the Doha
       Declaration.
     * December 11, 2001 - The People's Republic of China joined the WTO
       after 15 years of negotiations (the longest in GATT history).
     * January 1, 2002 - Taiwan joined under the name "Separate Customs
       Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu".
     * September 1, 2002 - Supachai Panitchpakdi became director-general.
     * September 10 - September 14, 2003 - 5th ministerial conference in
       Cancún, Mexico aims at forging agreement on the Doha round. An
       alliance of 22 southern states, the G20 (led by India, China and
       Brazil), resisted demands from the North for agreements on the
       so-called " Singapore issues" and called for an end to agricultural
       subsidies within the EU and the US. The talks broke down without
       progress, although trade facilitation, one of the Singapore issues,
       re-emerged with the support from both developed and developing
       countries in later Doha trade round discussion.
     * August 2004 - Geneva talks achieve a framework agreement on the
       Doha round. Developed countries will lower agricultural subsidies,
       and in exchange the developing countries will lower tariff barriers
       to manufactured goods.
     * May 2005 - Paris talks aimed at finalizing issues for agreement
       before the December 2005 ministerial conference in Hong Kong are
       hung over technical issues. The group of five (U.S., Australia, the
       EU, Brazil and India) fail to agree over chicken, beef and rice.
       France continues to protest restrictions on subsidies to farmers.
       Oxfam accuses the EU of delaying tactics which threaten to scupper
       the Doha round.
     * November 11 - WTO General Council successfully adopts Saudi
       Arabia’s terms of Accession
     * December 13 - December 18, 2005 - 6th ministerial conference in
       Hong Kong.
     * July 24, 2006 - The Doha Development Agenda negotiations were
       suspended, because gaps between key players remained too wide.

Criticism

   The stated aim of the WTO is to promote free trade and stimulate
   economic growth. Many people argue that free trade does not make
   ordinary people's lives more prosperous but only results in the rich
   (both people and countries) becoming richer. WTO treaties have also
   been accused of a partial and unfair bias toward multinational
   corporations and wealthy nations.

   Critics contend that small countries in the WTO wield little influence,
   and despite the WTO aim of helping the developing countries, the
   influential nations in the WTO focus on their own commercial interests.
   They also claim that the issues of health, safety and environment are
   steadfastly ignored..

   Martin Khor argues that the WTO does not manage the global economy
   impartially, but in its operation has a systematic bias toward rich
   countries and multinational corporations, harming smaller states which
   have less negotiation power. Some examples of this bias are: (1) rich
   countries are able to maintain high import duties and quotas in certain
   products, blocking imports from developing countries (e.g. clothing);
   (2) the increase in non-tariff barriers such as anti-dumping measures
   allowed against developing countries; (3) the maintenance of high
   protection of agriculture in developed countries while developing ones
   are pressed to open their markets; (4) many developing countries do not
   have the capacity to follow the negotiations and participate actively
   in the Uruguay Round; and (5) the TRIPs agreement which limits
   developing countries from utilizing some technology that originates
   from abroad in their local systems (including medicines and
   agricultural products).

   Jagdish Bhagwati, although pro-free trade and pro-globalization, has
   strongly criticized the introduction of TRIPs (forum shifting) into the
   WTO/GATT framework. His fear is that other non-trade agendas might
   overwhelm the organization's function.

   Many non-governmental organizations, such as the World Federalist
   Movement, are calling for the creation of a WTO parliamentary assembly
   to allow for more democratic participation in WTO decision making . Dr
   Caroline Lucas recommended that such an assembly "have a more prominent
   role to play in the form of parliamentary scrutiny, and also in the
   wider efforts to reform the WTO processes, and its rules" . However, Dr
   Raoul Marc Jennar argues that a consultative parliamentary assembly
   would be ineffective for the following reasons :
     * It does not resolve the problem of “informal meetings” whereby
       industrialized countries negotiate the most important decisions;
     * It does not reduce the de facto inequality which exists between
       countries with regards to an effective and efficient participation
       to all activities within all WTO bodies;
     * It does not rectify the multiple violations of the general
       principles of law which affect the dispute settlement mechanism.

Ministerial conferences

First ministerial conference

   The inaugural ministerial conference was held in Singapore in 1996.
   Disagreements between largely developed and developing economies
   emerged during this conference over four issues initiated by this
   conference, which led to them being collectively referred to as the "
   Singapore issues".

Second ministerial conference

   Was held in Geneva in Switzerland.

Third ministerial conference

   The third conference in Seattle, Washington ended in failure, with
   massive demonstrations and police and National Guard crowd control
   efforts drawing worldwide attention.

Fourth ministerial conference

   Was held in Doha.

Fifth ministerial conference

   The ministerial conference was held in Cancún, Mexico, aiming at
   forging agreement on the Doha round. An alliance of 22 southern states,
   the G20 (led by India, China and Brazil), resisted demands from the
   North for agreements on the so-called " Singapore issues" and called
   for an end to agricultural subsidies within the EU and the US. The
   talks broke down without progress.

Sixth ministerial conference

   The sixth WTO Conference Ministerial was held in Hong Kong from
   December 13 - December 18, 2005. It was considered vital if the
   four-year-old Doha Development Agenda negotiations were to move forward
   sufficiently to conclude the round in 2006. In this meeting, countries
   agreed to phase out all their agricultural export subsidies by the end
   of 2013, and terminate any cotton export subsidies by the end of 2006.
   Further concessions to developing countries included an agreement to
   introduce duty free, tariff free access for goods from the Least
   Developed Countries, following the Everything But Arms initiative of
   the European Union - but with up 3% of tariff lines exempted. Other
   major issues were left for further negotiation to be completed by the
   end of 2006.
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