RTAs and South South trade cooperation

Regional trade arrangements

Regional trade blocs are also helpful in expanding trade.

4. Promoting trade and enhancing intraregional and

Regional Trade and Investment Review

Preferences, South South trade, and regional and global trade agreements

6. The international trading scene was characterized by a process of continuous trade negotiations at the multilateral, regional and subregional levels, as well as by the rapid expansion of trade flows.

interregional cooperation

Trade facilitation and regional integration

South South and intra regional trade in particular would benefit from multilateral trade facilitation agreements.

Regional trade agreements and South South cooperation

Section 11 Trade and Regional Integration Division

Trade, regional economic cooperation and integration

(c) Economic and trade issues of concern to the region

The last years have seen a growth of RTAs covering services trade.

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Trade and Equity

Status resolution will also have clear regional benefits, including for regional dialogue and trade.

There is considerable unexploited potential for subregional and regional trade in Africa.

56. With regard to international trade, the countries of the Rio Group had chosen to open up on both the trade and financial fronts, within the region and with other regions of the world, through active participation in the Uruguay Round multilateral trade negotiations, which had given birth to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

There was a need to improve African intraregional trade, and also South South trade, in which Asia already played a major role.

UNCTAD apos s new mandate was in response to emerging transport and trade patterns indicating increased regional trade.

Today some 50 per cent of world trade takes place within regional trade agreements.

While intraregional trade had grown in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, intra African trade had declined at a rate of 9 per cent during the first half of the 1990s.

Research by the UNCTAD secretariat has shown that such arrangements are likely to be strongly trade expanding for developing regions generally, and for sub Saharan Africa in particular, increasing both intra regional trade and trade with third countries.

Both in Africa and the Arab region, intraregional trade remained mostly stagnant for decades representing some 10 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, of their trade volume.

ITC has a South South trade promotion programme centred on bringing buyers and sellers together at well prepared regional and interregional conferences.

The trade performance of the regions has also been widely divergent.

Subprogramme 5 Promoting trade and regional integration

60 6 Revitalization of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Operations Centre

One such issue is the proliferation of regional trade arrangements (RTAs).

The growth of RTAs has accelerated in recent years, with new RTAs (such as NAFTA and MERCOSUR) being established, others expanded (e.g. the EU) and formal links being established among certain existing RTAs, so that RTAs cover an increasingly large share of world trade potentially discriminatory against the excluded countries.

In February 1996, the World Trade Organization decided to establish a Committee on Regional Trade Agreements.

(i) Commodity dependent developing countries should consider the relative advantages of regional arrangements and regional and South South trade as a means of diversification and as a stepping stone to global trade.

Bearing in mind the primacy of the multilateral trading system, and the importance of open regional economic integration, regional trade agreements should be outward oriented and supportive of the multilateral trading system.

The promotion of such intraregional trade should facilitate the objective of regional economic integration.

Regionally, the South South trade picture varies dramatically.

Contribution to the existing regional trade and economic integration process

Trade was the preferred route to guarantee the development of the region a more coherent and supportive international trading and financial system would complement national and regional efforts.

58 220 Economic and technical cooperation among developing countries

Finally, the Trade Point was also expected to contribute to regional and international cooperation.

. Supporting other inter country projects that enhance subregional trade

That instrument which should serve as a mirror for other regions would significantly boost regional and inter regional economic cooperation and trade.

At the regional level, UNCTAD should continue to provide advisory and analytical support to regional and subregional integration groups, further assisting in making them operational and increasing intraregional trade.

The regional dimension of the Millennium Development Goals includes regional policies such as regional trade, infrastructure and legal instruments.

The agreement will shortly be renamed as the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) in view of its potential to be a consolidating and integrating force in the region in the area of trade as well as being the only RTA that links East and South Asia.