What do we do?
The Mission of Chile to the World Trade Organization (WTO) located in Geneva, is in charge of the permanent representation of our country’s interests before this organization. The Mission also represents Chile before the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) , and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) . These two organizations have their headquarters in Geneva as well and fundamentally deal with economic and commercial issues, complementing therefore the Mission’s activities before the WTO. Staff members from the Mission also represent Chile at some meetings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) , which is situated in Paris, France.
The Mission is led by a Permanent Representative, Ambassador Mario Matus Baeza, who heads a team integrated by:
The WTO
The WTO, which started operating on January 1st, 1995 and which as of January 2004 has 148 Members, is the administering institution for the agreements that regulate most of world trade. Furthermore, at the international level, the WTO is the only global forum for the negotiation of new rules for trade, for the reduction of trade barriers in goods and services, and for the settlement of Trade disputes among its Members. The Director-General until September 2005 is Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi.
The WTO operates on the basis of different Councils and Committees, which gather periodically and which are divided by topics. Some of the meetings held in the WTO are for negotiation purposes. These negotiations may include tariffs –agricultural and industrial-, non-trade barriers, trade remedies (such as antidumping measures and safeguards), and subsidies, among other topics. Other WTO meetings have the purpose to implement the current agreements and to examine how Members fulfill their trade commitments. Finally there are meetings whose objective is allowing WTO Members to solve their disputes through a dispute settlement mechanism, whose decisions are binding.
Besides these official meetings, which are open to all WTO Members, there are smaller groups’ meetings, either composed geographically (the Latin American Group, for example) or by topic. The latter gallier countries that pursue similar objectives in a given area. Chile actively participates in several of these groups according to its priorities. For instance, we are Members of the (Cairns Group) and G-20 Group (both focused on agricultural trade liberalization) and of the Friends of Antidumping Negotiations (FANS), which gathers countries wishing to eliminate the current abuses in the implementation of Antidumping measures. Chile actively participates as well in many other formal and informal groups, on subjects such as trade in services, geographical indications, fisheries subsidies, etc.
Our participation in such a large number of meetings is product of a constant coordination with Santiago’s authorities. This process is mainly channeled through the WTO Department of the General Directorate for International Economic Relations (DIRECON) of the (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) . Nonetheless, in the definition of Chile’s positions in the WTO intervene a great number of Ministries and public agencies, such as the (Ministries of Finance), (Economy), (Agriculture), (Education), (Health) , etc. Likewise, experts of these Ministries and other public agencies regularly participate in meetings held in Geneva supporting the Mission’s work. This practice reflects the variety of topics covered by the WTO Agreements and the technical complexity of them. The business sector and civil society also participate in the formulation of our positions through a constant process of consultation with them.
Since November 2001, the Mission of Chile to the WTO has lived a very active period. This is because on that date the so-called “Doha Development Agenda”, also informally known as the Doha Round, was launched in Doha (Qatar). The “Doha Agenda” is a wide exercise of multilateral trade negotiations in which all WTO Members participate. The objective of this negotiation is the achievement of greater market access, through the reduction or elimination of trade barriers and through the improvement of Trade rules. Among the areas that are being negotiated are: tariffs, agricultural subsidies, antidumping measures, dispute settlement and trade in services, among others.
The Doha Round negotiations are very important for our country, in spite of the large number of Free Trade Agreements that Chile has in place and which link it with the majority of its main partners. Indeed, some of Chile’s priority objectives, such as the substantial reduction of agricultural subsidies and the improvement of antidumping rules, can only be achieved through a multilateral negotiation within the WTO. Moreover, a successful outcome of the Doha Round will allow Chile to improve its exporters’ access to big and dynamic Asian markets like China, India and Japan, with which we actually do not have Free Trade Agreements.
UNCTAD
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), created in 1964, aims at the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. UNCTAD is the central point within the United Nations for the integrated treatment of trade and development and the interrelated issues in the areas of finance, technology, investment and sustainable development. In this regard, the UNCTAD:
WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an international organization dedicated to promote the use and protection of works of the human spirit, Known as intellectual property. WIPO is one of the 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations system. It administers 23 international treaties dealing with different aspects of intellectual property protection. The Organization counts 179 nations as Member States.
OECD
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) groups 30 Member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and market economy. It is a forum for intergovernmental debates as well as a center for research and diffusion of best practices in topics related to public policies, such as macroeconomics, education, development, the fight against corruption, etc.
In 2003 Chile made official its application to become an OECD Member. Our country is also an Observer in some of its Committees, such as the Trade Committee. In it, OECD Members and Observers analyze periodically the main topics of the international trade agenda, with special emphasis on the WTO.