ICC proposals on market access for non-agricultural products

The GATT made immense progress in dismantling tariff barriers to international trade, but its work is by no means completed. Remaining tariffs inhibit trade significantly and cause substantial commercial and economic inefficiencies. Their elimination is one of the largest potential sources of economic benefits to all parties in this negotiation.

Thus, ICC believes that WTO members should aim at the elimination of all remaining tariffs on non-agricultural products. The following proposals are intended to assist WTO members and the Negotiating Group on Market Access, in particular, in developing a common understanding with a view to reaching an agreement on modalities by 31 May 2003.

ICC considers that the negotiations on market access for non-agricultural products is of central importance to trade liberalization because of the benefits for all WTO members that such liberalization could bring. In particular, it is strongly in the interest of developing and least-developed countries (LDCs) to eliminate tariff barriers, provided that capacity building and sequencing of tariff cuts are appropriate to individual situations.

A large part of the expected gains from tariff elimination will result from tariff elimination by low and middle income countries, with many of these gains resulting from increased trade among these countries.