Source: MarketScreener
WTO Members thanked the Secretariat for the list of government notifications relating to COVID-19 which have been submitted to the Committee as well as the communications outlining unilateral measures aimed at facilitating trade during the pandemic. It was noted that while the number of notifications by WTO members has been increasing, there was still room for improvement in making timely submissions in line with WTO rules and in providing prompt responses to information requests from the Secretariat.
Several WTO members stressed that any emergency measure designed to tackle COVID-19 must be targeted, proportionate, transparent and temporary. It must not create unnecessary disruptions to supply chains that could have a detrimental impact on business, in particular micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The measures under review should go beyond export-restrictive measures and include other measures applied to fight the pandemic, they said. This includes tariff elimination, internal taxes and trade facilitation procedures.
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