Economics
International Trade Agreements
International trade agreements are deals between countries that aim to promote trade and economic cooperation. These agreements often involve the reduction or elimination of tariffs, quotas, and other trade barriers to facilitate the flow of goods and services between nations. They can also address intellectual property rights, investment, and other aspects of trade relations.
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3 Key excerpts on "International Trade Agreements"
- Eckhard Siggel(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Source: J. Dean, S. Desai and J. Riedel, ‘Trade Policy Reform in Developing Countries since 1985’, World Bank Discussion Paper 267.5.6 International Trade Agreements
Unilateral trade liberalization may be welfare-maximizing on purely theoretical grounds, but in the context of underdevelopment and existing (world-wide) trade restrictions, countries may be better off with a mild degree of trade policy intervention. Among such interventions, we shall focus here on international commodity agreements and buffer stocks, whereas preferential trade agreements receive only short attention here and will be dealt with in more detail in Chapter 7 on regional integration.5.6.1 Commodity agreements and buffer stocks
The problems of export instability, due to the volatility of international commodity prices, and of declining terms of trade have led the developing countries to seek arrangements for greater income stability and more advantageous prices. International commodity agreements, which have been concluded for commodities such as sugar, tin, rubber, cocoa and coffee, are meant to stabilize prices by restricting output when prices decline and by encouraging output when prices are rising. For such agreements to work, there must be not only initial agreement among the producing and consuming nations, but also the willingness to enforce the agreement. Most of the agreements have failed to assure long-term stability because the producing nations have been unable to enforce the quota they had agreed to. One particular form of such agreements is the export cartel, which aims also at higher export prices, by imposing export quotas on their members. Its success depends on the willingness of its members to resist the temptation of cheating and to respect the quota. One well-known example of such a cartel is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In spite of its original success in raising the international oil price, it suffers from periodic crises stemming from the problem of discipline inherent in cartels, as well as from the fact that not all international exporters are members of the organization.
eBook - ePub- Klaus Gunter Deutsch, Bernhard Speyer(Authors)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
In the era of GATT, the world trade system has gone through several rounds of negotiations, which started from the tariffication of quotas and tariff reductions and the elimination of so-called non-tariff barriers and then extended to the protection of intellectual property rights and to trade in services. The coverage of GATT/WTO has been expanded to such an extent that it now deals with issues that go deeply into the domestic regulations and the social and economic systems of member countries. Since the establishment of the WTO in 1995, free trade principles have been extended to information technology in the Information Technology Agreement. The Basic Telecommunications Agreement and the Financial Services Agreement, both of which go far beyond the traditional liberalisation of cross-border transactions, have also been reached. They cover the reduction of restrictions on investment in services as well as the harmonisation of domestic regulations in a pro-competition manner.Building on this, the Japanese business community as it is represented by Keidanren, whose members depend so much on international trade rules and which has been a powerful supporter of the free trade system itself, expects progress in the following issue areas:- rule setting on international investment, competition and electronic commerce;
- a review and strengthening of anti-dumping rules;
- intellectual property rights;
- a liberalisation of trade in services; and
- tariff reductions in the case of industrial products.
Keidanren emphasises that the next round of negotiations should cover areas of mutual interest for both developing and developed countries. This will only be possible if the negotiations cover many different issues. The increased interdependence of the world and the increased globalisation of economic activities have brought difficult and complex issues to the forefront. However, the Japanese business community regards the launching of a comprehensive round of negotiations as an inevitable and important step towards establishing the new infrastructure for the expansion of the world economy early in the next century.
- Graeme Baber(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
1 The World Trade Organization’s International Trade Agreements – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Structure and CommentaryOn 15 April 1994, the Parties to the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization decided to found the WTO1 . The Annexes to that Agreement contained 13 Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods (including the GATT2 ) – one of which expired on 1 January 20053 , the GATS4 , the TRIPS5 , the DSU6 , the TPRM7 and the four Plurilateral Trade Agreements8 – two of which are no longer in force9 . On 22 February 2017, a further Multilateral Agreement on Trade in Goods – the Agreement on Trade Facilitation – was added to Annex 1A to the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, and came into force on that date10 .The GATT
The GATT comprises its predecessor, GATT 194711 – subject to minor modifications12 – and the following additional documents: (i) identified protocols and decisions that came into force prior to the date on which the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization became effective13 , (ii) six specified Understandings14 , and (iii) the Marrakesh Protocol15 . Reference to Articles in the GATT in this book are to the updated version of GATT 1947 – although these only refer to ‘GATT’, as they also apply under the 1994 Agreement.Article I: General Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment
Article I:1: The MFN Rule
Article I:1 of the GATT provides that, in respect of issues concerning importation, exportation or the cross-border transfer of payments with regard to imports or exports, any favourable treatment that a Member of the WTO provides to another state in respect of any product originating in or in transit to the latter is to be instantly and unconditionally granted to the same product that was produced in or destined for the territory of any other Member16 . This is known as the MFN Rule, as it requires MFN treatment to be extended to all Members of the WTO17 . Article I:1 of the GATT is intended to prevent discrimination between similar products that originate in, or are destined for, different jurisdictions18 . Accordingly, this Article applies to measures that appear to be ‘origin-neutral’ but which make it possible for discrimination to be made in practice19 . Furthermore, the application of MFN treatment in part only – to some products but not others and/or with regard to some but not all Members of the WTO, is a breach of Article I:1 of the GATT – which specifies any advantage, product and Member20
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