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On the development dimension the submission maintains that negotiations should include ‘clarifications of WTO rules on RTAs that support the developmental impact of RTAs, as well as recognition that the potential challenges arising from such RTAs to third parties’ trade and to the WTO at large may be very different depending on the share in world trade and the level of development of the parties concerned.’ The submission suggests that ‘the DDA negotiations on RTAs should aim to clarify the flexibilities already provided within the existing WTO rules on RTAs, in order to give greater security to developing-country parties to RTAs to ensure that the rules facilitate the necessary adjustments’. It continues ‘The European Communities are prepared to explore various ways of achieving this aim, including the extent to which flexibilities might be appropriate with respect to inter alia, the length of the transitional period, the level of final coverage and the degree of asymmetry for both under GATT Article XXIV’. It notes that ‘longer transition periods might be necessary to facilitate market building and consolidation through gradual openness to trade in weak and vulnerable developing countries, taking into account their specific needs and constraints’ and calls for ‘developing country parties to RTAs to be able to depart, where necessary, from the general rule of ten years maximum’. However the submission notes that ‘regional integration can play an important role in promoting economic development’ where such agreements are ‘sufficiently ambitious and take into account the specific needs and constraints of developing and least developed countries’.
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