Wto Legal Documents

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a single institutional framework comprising GATT and all legal agreements and instruments negotiated in the Uruguay Round: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade or GATT 1994 and other agreements on trade in goods; the General Agreement on Trade in Services or GATS; the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Protection or TRIPS; the Dispute Settlement Agreement (DSU); and the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). In addition, a number of ministerial decisions and declarations complement the agreements reached. The LAD-based Assistant Depositary prepares a publication on the status of WTO legal instruments. This publication, which lists all legal instruments prepared and deposited by WTO Members in relation to the WTO Agreement and the plurilateral trade agreements annexed to this Agreement, provides Members with a consolidated compilation of instruments of acceptance and accession, as well as other official notifications and communications relating to the WTO Agreements. This publication also contains a useful explanation of how the WTO Agreements have entered into force and of the depositary`s practice with regard to amendments to these Agreements and related legal instruments. Part III of the Agreement contains provisions on market access and national treatment, which are the subject of specific commitments in national schedules, rather than general commitments. Until 1. By September 1994, 95 participants had submitted timetables (including a single list for the twelve EU member States) indicating the services activities subject to commitments and the restrictions applicable to each type of market access provision (e.g. number of service suppliers, number of service transactions; type of legal person through which a service is supplied). or national treatment.

Specific and differentiated provisions in legal texts: quick access to the list of meetings of official WTO bodies, by date or subject; Access, view, and download documents related to the cited sessions. Data available from January 2003. The texts reproduced in this section do not have the legal validity of the original documents entrusted and kept at the WTO Secretariat in Geneva. > General information on the formal recognition of WTO legal instruments Not sure what range of documents are available? Documents Online includes automatic searches that create lists of frequently requested documents such as recent documents, minutes of WTO meetings, meeting documents, background documents, etc. In this regard, it should be noted that the objective of GSP preferences is not to divert trade from other exporters, but to enable developing countries to compete on a level playing field with producers in developed import markets. This objective will also be effectively achieved through tariff reductions negotiated in multilateral trade negotiations. While preferential arrangements often provide a priori for restrictions and criteria for granting preferences, negotiated tariff reductions do not. Moreover, tariff preferences are in many cases temporary and non-contractual. In contrast, tariff commitments under GATT are legally binding. While broad tariff liberalization, as achieved in the Uruguay Round, can boost exports and economic growth, the loss of preferences may well lead to real adjustment costs in some countries. Members intending to be bound by a WTO agreement or a particular related legal instrument must express their consent by depositing a valid « instrument of acceptance » directly with the Director-General or through the Assistant Depositary. Most WTO instruments set out, in addition to the relevant provisions of the WTO Agreements, additional measures that a Member must take to demonstrate its consent.

Members can express this consent in a variety of ways and have a separate national approval process. The Uruguay Round Agreement on Dispute Settlement (DSU) contains significant improvements to GATT dispute settlement procedures.