WT/TPR/G/408/Rev.1 28 May 2021 (21-4417) Page: 1/52 Trade Policy Review Body Original: English TRADE POLICY REVIEW REPORT BY QATAR Revision Pursuant to the Agreement Establishing the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (Annex 3 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization), the policy statement by Qatar is attached. WT/TPR/G/408/Rev.1 • Qatar - 2 - Contents 1 THE GENERAL POLICY CONTEXT .................................................................................. 4 1.1 Overview .................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 The Emergence of a New Economic Context .................................................................... 4 1.3 Qatar's Main Policy Responses ....................................................................................... 5 1.3.1 Qatar Second National Development Strategy .............................................................. 5 1.3.2 Development of Domestic Markets .............................................................................. 7 1.3.3 Investment Policy ..................................................................................................... 8 1.3.4 Labour Conditions ..................................................................................................... 9 1.3.5 Labour Laws ............................................................................................................11 2 MAIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS ............................................................................. 14 2.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................14 2.2 Macroeconomic Performance ........................................................................................14 2.3 Agriculture and Food Security ......................................................................................17 2.4 Fiscal Policy ...............................................................................................................18 2.5 Monetary Policy ..........................................................................................................20 2.5.1 Inflation .................................................................................................................22 2.6 Foreign Direct Investment ...........................................................................................23 2.7 Preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup .....................................................................23 2.7.1 Sports Facilities .......................................................................................................23 2.7.2 Infrastructure ..........................................................................................................24 2.7.3 Doha Metro .............................................................................................................25 2.8 Capital Markets ..........................................................................................................26 2.8.1 Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism .................................28 2.9 Tourism .....................................................................................................................29 3 TRADE POLICY REGIME ............................................................................................. 32 3.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................32 3.2 Trade Policy Objectives ...............................................................................................32 3.3 The General Authority of Customs ................................................................................33 3.4 Customs Procedures ...................................................................................................33 3.4.1 Changes in Export and Import Procedures ..................................................................34 3.4.2 Trade Facilitation Measures .......................................................................................34 3.4.3 Anti-Smuggling and Customs Security ........................................................................35 3.4.4 Customs Valuation ...................................................................................................35 3.4.5 Valuation Dispute Resolution .....................................................................................35 3.4.6 Customs Agreements ...............................................................................................35 3.5 Rules of Origin ...........................................................................................................36 3.6 Trade Remedies .........................................................................................................36 3.7 Foreign Investment ....................................................................................................36 3.8 Investment Promotion .................................................................................................38 WT/TPR/G/408/Rev.1 • Qatar - 3 - 3.8.1 Investment Promotion Agency Qatar ..........................................................................39 3.8.2 Qatar Free Zones .....................................................................................................40 3.8.3 Media City ..............................................................................................................42 3.8.4 Higher Education .....................................................................................................42 3.9 Export Promotion........................................................................................................43 3.10 Double Taxation Treaties ...........................................................................................43 3.11 Intellectual Property ..................................................................................................44 3.12 Competition Policy ....................................................................................................45 3.13 Procurement ............................................................................................................46 3.14 Electronic Commerce .................................................................................................47 4 TRADE AGREEMENTS ................................................................................................. 48 4.1 Bilateral Trade-Related Agreements ..............................................................................48 4.2 The Gulf Cooperation Council .......................................................................................48 4.3 The World Trade Organization ......................................................................................50 4.3.1 Disputes .................................................................................................................51 5 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 52 WT/TPR/G/408/Rev.1 • Qatar - 4 - 1 THE GENERAL POLICY CONTEXT 1.1 Overview 1.1. Since its last Trade Policy Review, Qatar has had to deal with a continuously evolving economic and political landscape, both at the global and the regional level. Some of these new trends reflect a shift in market fundamentals, including regulatory changes, whilst others are more specific to particular situations that, in some cases, are still unfolding. In response to this, Qatar, under the leadership of H.H. the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, continued to develop its foreign economic policy, including a realignment of its trade policy framework to the emerging realities on the ground. This included expanding Qatar's export and import markets, establishing new shipping routes, developing domestic markets, implementing further trade facilitation measures, supporting and promoting foreign investment into the country, opening trade offices in the capital cities of key trading partners and continuing to complement the multilateral trading system through regional and bilateral cooperation agreements, amongst other initiatives. In this sense, the various situations faced by Qatar since 2014 (described in Section 1.2) led to the development its policy toolkit in order to meet its strategic development goals as well as its global commitments. 1.2. The events of June 2017 created some challenges in the immediate aftermath. The situation, nonetheless, served to strengthen the authorities' resolve to move forward with Qatar's development agenda. Moreover, as time passed, Qatar's economy, particularly its institutions and policy space, not only weathered the situation but, in fact, came out much stronger because of it. In fact, the challenges fast-tracked change through, revamped and streamlined regulations and oversight practices, created priorities, focused public policy to more actively manage existing resources and— just as importantly—created the need to actively manage and mitigate risk. 1.3. At the same time, Qatar's long-term human, social and economic development goals continued to be firmly grounded in the objectives set forth in the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030). This document remains the fundamental policy framework for the country's strategic socioeconomic and human development. It thus provides the guiding principles