Brexiteers seem to relish the idea of sitting at meetings of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the global body headquartered in Geneva. “By regaining our seat on the WTO, which we gave up in 1973 on joining the EEC”, says Leave.EU’s Richard Tice, “we would have more say in global trade talks”. If we remain in the EU, say Vote Leave, “we will have no vote at the World Trade Organisation to influence world trade negotiations.” By reclaiming our WTO seat, says Tory MP John Redwood, “the UK will in each case be able to form her own opinion and to advance it directly”.
The Eurosceptic clamour for a seat at the WTO is puzzling. Technically, the UK – and all other EU countries – are already full members of the WTO, though it is the EU Commission which negotiates external trade deals on behalf of all EU members and speaks for its members at almost all WTO meetings.
The EU’s position as one of the WTO’s most influential members is derived from the size of its internal market, and from the number of countries it represents. Leaving the EU might restore eurosceptics’ national pride. But it would give us little power or influence in practice.
In any case it is not clear what discussions eurosceptics want the right to take part in. The last set of WTO talks, known as the Doha round, largely collapsed back in 2008. They limped on for a few years, and achieved some limited success in agricultural subsidies and computer products. But most commentators now regard the Doha round as dead.
This is no criticism of the WTO. It has never been easy to make multilateral trade deals among all its 162 members – the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was provisional for half a century. But to rouse such a lumbering beast, the very least you need is market size and scale.
Most trade deals now are not made in the WTO, but in separate multilateral or bilateral agreements. Examples are the ongoing EU-US free trade discussions, and the trade in services agreement being hammered out by 23 of the WTO’s members, including the EU. Some hope such agreements might become a model for others to follow, or even the nucleus of a future global deal. But the UK is far more likely to have influence as a member of the world’s biggest economy.
Not having independent WTO membership irks eurosceptics. But it is the price you pay for a deeply integrated EU market. By signing up to a single commercial policy, British companies have free access to a single market of 500 million people, without border controls or the need to comply with onerous rules of origin.
Britain has significant influence on the EU’s external trade policy. In the last couple of decades, three Britons – Leon Brittan, Peter Mandelson, and Cathy Ashton – held the post of EU trade commissioner. The UK has respectively 9.6 and 12.7 per cent of votes in the European Parliament and Council, from which the Commission takes its mandate for trade pacts. National interests are always taken into account – the EU-South Korea free trade deal eliminated tariffs and gave protected status for Scotch whisky, a multi-billion pound UK export for which South Korea is the 8th biggest market.
The second and third paragraphs were amended and corrected on 30 March, to clarify the fact that the UK, and all other EU member countries, are already members of the WTO.
Edited by Geert Linnebank
There was a minor error in the piece on the WTO. Kathy Ashford was “high representative” (in effect the EU foreign affairs chief) not trade commissioner and hence never represented the EU in WTO negotiations.
But the main thrust of the piece was correct – and indeed could have been strengthened. The mandate for the Commission who negotiate on behalf of the EU is given by the member states, so, as a member of the EU we can help to form it. Outside the EU, we could speak for ourselves in the WTO negotiations – but who would be listening? The big beasts in the WTO are the EU, US, Brazil, China and India. Even Japan, a bigger economy than the UK and with a bigger population, struggles to get a hearing. Any member of the WTO can, in theory at least, veto an agreement but it is the big beasts who effectively negotiate the agreements.
Incidentally, although it’s true that the Doha Round, which was originally conceived as a single undertaking with the usual slogan “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” has died, bits of the Doha agenda are still being passed , for example, the Agreement on Trade facilitation which is now open for caceptance by members and agreements are being reached on packages outside the Doha agreement, example on trade in environmental goods.
Thanks for your comment, David. Cathy Ashton (to whom I think you are referring in your first paragraph) was EU trade commissioner 2008-2009, after Peter Mandelson was recalled to join the Brown Cabinet. http://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-Ashton-Baroness-Ashton-of-Upholland
The above link to the Vote Leave website is out of date, they closed the website down after the vote so that it wouldn’t show up in internet searches. The relevant page can be found on their archive website here:
https://voteleavearchive.com/briefing_trade