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Trade Policy Advice

Trade Policy Advice Program: SERBIA

WTO accession

Project Partners	Serbian Ministry for International Economic Relations State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO

Implementing Agency	IDEAS Centre, Geneva

1. Background

The WTO General Council established a Working Party in February 2005 to examine Serbia's December 2004 membership application. Serbia's Memorandum of Foreign Trade Regime was circulated in March 2005, and the Working Party held its first meeting in October 2005. Bilateral market access negotiations are underway on the basis of revised offers on Goods and Services. The Working Party met for the sixth time in December 2008.

The project is about to enter into its third phase. The first stage took place in 2003-2004 and covered both Serbia and Montenegro. The second stage occurred in 2005-2009, after the division of Serbia and Montenegro required two separate accession processes. The assistance under the first two phases of this project has always been targeted to the areas where specific problems emerged, and where the lack of WTO related expertise in the Serbian Government was identified

2. Objectives

The overarching goal of the WTO Accession Support Programme is for Serbia to negotiate accession to the WTO by 2010, following coherent approach between its development needs and negotiating strategy.

The project aims to facilitate Serbia’s reintegration into the multilateral trading system by assisting policymakers and negotiators to develop and implement well informed negotiating strategy based on a clear understanding of WTO membership rights and obligations, and their potential impact on Serbia’s national interests and development objectives.

There are three main objectives:

To assist Serbian trade policymakers and negotiators to define, articulate and defend Serbia’s trade and development interests in WTO accession negotiations
To assist Serbian Government to stimulate intergovernmental policy dialogue and help raise awareness among all stakeholders of the importance and consequences of the WTO accession
To assist the Serbian Government to identify implementation- related concerns and provide advice on how to address them

3. Contacts

Ideas Centre

Mr. Nicolas Imboden, Project Director, nicolas.imboden@ideascentre.ch

Mr. Josip Pervan, Project Manager, josip.pervan@ideascentre.ch

State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

SECO, WEHU, http://www.seco.admin.ch/

Trade Policy Advice Program: MONTENEGRO

WTO accession

Duration		Phase I 2003-2004 Phase II 2005-2009

Project Partners		Ministry for International Economic and European Relations State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO

Implementing Agency		IDEAS Centre, Geneva

1. Background

Yugoslavia was a member of GATT since 1966 but could not ratify the Uruguay Round Agreements due to the Balkan war. FRY, now Union of Serbia and Montenegro has thus to negotiate its Accession to the WTO. A Working Party has been established to this end in February 2001 and a Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime has been submitted in June 2002.

In December 2004 Serbia and Montenegro notified the WTO of a new constitutional agreement by which they agree to maintain separate customs and trade regimes and decided to apply individually for accession to the WTO. In February 2005 the General Council of WTO decided to establish two separate Working Parties on accession.

While Montenegro is already benefiting from assistance from, mainly USAID and the EU-sponsored GTZ and PLAC programs which are based in Podgorica, Ideas centre focuses on negotiations-related analysis and advice in order to help to advance the process.

2. Overall Goal and Content

The overarching goal of the trade policy area is to facilitate Montenegro 's re-integration into the multilateral trading system, as a means to foster trade and investment with its regional and global partners. To this end, the program is advising the Government with regard to the adequate measures in the economic and trade related fields to facilitate its successful accessions to the WTO.

More specifically the project aims at:

• Improving the capacity of MIEER and the WTO accession commission to understand issues and to enable them to negotiate efficiently its accession both multilaterally and bilaterally.

• Contributing to the development of a trade policy decision making process and a strong and coherent negotiating capacity, through general and specific trade policy advice and support.

3. Activities

The trade policy advice and support will be done through the following activities.

Comments on the Montenegrin agricultural policy in the context of WTO

Two trade policy missions by the Director and the Project co-ordinator, for policy discussions and implementation of the program.

Two expert missions on issues identified during the negotiation process, normally in the field of agriculture.

Trainig in Geneva

From February 2006 two capital based experts will follow a specific trade policy program at Ideas in Geneva of duration of 12 wee ks. The selection of the experts has to be based on their professional skills and language knowledge which allows them to follow WTO meetings and trade policy discussion in general. The training implies the following activities:

		follow accession activities in Geneva i.e working party meetings;
		get necessary and real exposure to WTO negotiations, including on the Doha round;
		exchange experience and information with other acceding or recently acceded Members;
		get acquainted with other relevant international organizations in Geneva ;
		meet with key delegations' representatives in Geneva ;
		work on the regular accession tasks (preparation of documentation for example), under the supervision of IDEAS Centre and with the possibility to get direct and additional assistance from the WTO Secretariat. .