Student's discussion reply-Due: tonight
Topic 2. WTO - Trade Disputes
Discuss:
Has the country you selected been a complainant or respondent in a case before the WTO in the last 5 years? If so, describe briefly the nature of the dispute. Has the complaint been resolved?
What role did the WTO play in the dispute?
Why do you think the country follows this trade policy?
What industries or sectors of the economy benefit from these policies?
Does it affect the country's economic structure? If so, how?
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Student’s discussion:
France has been involved in a total of 4 WTO disputes all of which, have been as a respondent, but only one has occurred within the last 5 years. The complainant, the United States, alleged France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom illegally provided launch aid subsidies for the entire family of Airbus products and violated measures in Article XVI: 1 of GATT 1994, and Articles 5 and 6 of the SCM Agreement.
The panel assembled to investigate the allegations concluded that the United States had failed to demonstrate any material injury or threat of material injury and therefore rejected it’s claim.
The WTO DSB deferred this matter and established a panel. The panel consisted of third-parties Canada, China, Japan and Korea. The procedures followed were outlined in Annex V of the SCM Agreement.
The key industries that benefit from the trade policy are agriculture, aerospace, retail, and pharmaceuticals. Yes, the economic structure of France is strongly dependent on foreign trade, while tourism follows closely behind. There is a slowdown in growth among France’s main trading partners, which will greatly offset and diminish their positive aspects. Many of the services in France are reliant on tourism, and due to the recent attacks experienced in the country over the past couple years, tourism may stagnate or fall, placing increased pressure on their trade and exports to outperform (Global Edge, 2017).
Although France exports have increased on average 4% per year, totaling $571B in 2014, they are experiencing a negative trade balance of $7.1B in net imports (OEC, n.d.). This trade imbalance demonstrates the importance of the trade agreements that France has with it’s neighbors and brings up the question of whether these agreements should be revisited considering the deficit. France follows these trade policies, in my opinion, because they have a very complex economic makeup, rated at the 13th most complex country according to the Economic Complexity Index.
References
France, OEC Retrieved January 27, 2017 from http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/fra/
France: Risk Assessment GlobalEdge Retrieved from https://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/france/risk
DS316: European Communities — Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft WTO Retrieved January 27, 2017 from http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds316_e.htm
