 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

 GATT was formed in 1947 and lasted until

1994 was replaced by the World Trade
Organization
 On 1 January, 1948 the agreement was signed
by 23 countries.
 GATT held a total of 8 rounds.

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 World Trade Organization

 The WTO was born out of the General Agreement on Tariffs

and Trade (GATT).

 Headquarters : Geneva, Switzerland

 Formation : 1 January 1995

 Membership : 153 member countries

 Budget : 163 million USD (Approx).

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  It is an international organization designed to
supervise and liberalize international trade.

 The WTO has 153 members, which represents

more than 95% of total world trade.

 WTO cooperate closely with 2 other

component IMF and World Bank.

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  WTO is to ensure that global trade
commences smoothly, freely and predictably.

 Transparency in trade policies.

 Work as a economic research and analysis

centre.

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To create economic peace and stability in the
world through a multilateral system based on
consenting member states, that have ratified the
rules of the WTO in their individual countries as
Well.

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 GATT WTO
 It was ad hoc &  It is permanent.
provisional.
 It has legal basis because
 It had no provision for member nations have
creating an organization. verified the WTO
agreements.
 It allowed contradictions in
local law & GATT  More authority than GATT.
agreements. It doesn't allow any
contradictions in local law .

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 GATT and WTO trade rounds[27]
Name Start Duration Countries Subjects covered Achievements
Signing of GATT, 45,000 tariff
7
Geneva April 1947 23 Tariffs concessions affecting $10 billion of
months
trade
5 Countries exchanged some 5,000 tariff
Annecy April 1949 13 Tariffs
months concessions
Countries exchanged some 8,700 tariff
September 8
Torquay 38 Tariffs concessions, cutting the 1948 tariff
1950 months
levels by 25%
January 5
Geneva II 26 Tariffs, admission of Japan $2.5 billion in tariff reductions
1956 months
September 11 Tariff concessions worth $4.9 billion of
Dillon 26 Tariffs
1960 months world trade
37 Tariff concessions worth $40 billion of
Kennedy May 1964 62 Tariffs, Anti-dumping
months world trade
September 74 Tariffs, non-tariff measures, Tariff reductions worth more than
Tokyo 102
1973 months "framework" agreements $300 billion dollars achieved
The round led to the creation of WTO,
and extended the range of trade
negotiations, leading to major
Tariffs, non-tariff measures, rules,
reductions in tariffs (about 40%) and
September 87 services, intellectual property, dispute
Uruguay 123 agricultural subsidies, an agreement
1986 months settlement, textiles, agriculture,
to allow full access for textiles and
creation of WTO, etc
clothing from developing countries,
and an extension of intellectual
property rights.
Tariffs, non-tariff measures,
November agriculture, labor standards,
Doha ? 141 The round is not yet concluded.
2001 environment, competition,
30/01/15 XIDAS Jabalpur investment, transparency, patents etc 8
 WTO STRUCTURE.doc

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 Introduction.

 After over 7 years of negotiations the Uruguay

Round multilateral trade negotiations were concluded
on December 1993 and were formally ratified in
April 1994 at Marrakesh, Morocco.

 The WTO Agreement on Agriculture was one of the

main agreements which were negotiated during the
Uruguay Round.

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  The WTO Agreement on Agriculture contains
provisions in 3 broad areas of agriculture:
1. Market access.
2. Domestic support.
3. Export subsidies

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  This includes tariffication, tariff reduction and
access opportunities.
 Tariffication means that all non-tariff barriers
such as...
1. quotas;
2. variable levies;
3. minimum import price;
4. discretionary licensing;
5. state trading measures.

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  For domestic support policies, subject to
reduction commitments, the total support
given in 1986-88, measured by the Total
Aggregate Measure of Support (total AMS).

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  The Agreement contains provisions regarding
members commitment to reduce Export
Subsidies.

 Developed countries are required to reduce

their export subsidy expenditure by 36%.

 For developing countries the percentage cuts

are 24%.

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  As India was maintaining Quantitative
Restrictions due to balance of payments
reasons(which is a GATT consistent measure),
it did not have to undertake any commitments
in regard to market access.

 India does not provide any product specific

support other than market price support.
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 In India, exporters of agricultural commodities do not
get any direct subsidy.

 Indirect subsidies available to them are in the form of-:

a. exemption of export profit from income tax under
section 80-HHC of the Income Tax
b. subsidies on cost of freight on export shipments of
certain products like fruits, vegetables and floricultural
products.

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 India’s basic objectives in the ongoing negotiations
are:
a. To protect its food and livelihood security concerns
and to protect all domestic policy measures taken for
poverty alleviation, rural development and rural
employment.

b. To create opportunities for expansion of agricultural

exports by securing meaningful market access in
developed countries.

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The Agreement on Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) is
one of Agreements covered under Annex IA to the Marrakech
Agreement, signed at the end of the Uruguay Round (UR)
negotiations. The Agreement addresses investment measures that
are trade related and that also violate Article III (National
treatment) or Article XI (general elimination of quantitative
restrictions) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. An
illustrative list of the measures that are volatile of the provisions
of the Agreement is annexed to the text of the Agreement. These
pertain broadly to local content requirements, trade balancing
requirements and export restrictions, attached to investment
decision making.
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The Agreement requires all WTO Members to notify the
TRIMs that are inconsistent with the provisions of the
Agreement, and to eliminate them after the expiry of the
transition period provided in the Agreement. Transition
periods of two years in the case of developed countries,
five years in the case of developing countries and seven
years in the case of LDCs, from the date of entry into
force of the Agreement (i.e. 1stJanuary 1995) are
provided in the Agreement.

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As per the provisions of Art. 5.1 of the TRIMs Agreement India
had notified three trade related investment measures as
inconsistent with the provisions of the Agreement:
 Local content (mixing) requirements in the production of News
Print,
 Local content requirement in the production of Rifampicin and
Penicillin – G, and
 Dividend balancing requirement in the case of investment in 22
categories consumer goods.
Such notified TRIMs were due to be eliminated by 31st December,
1999. None of these measures is in force at present. Therefore,
India does not have any outstanding obligations under the TRIMs
agreement as far as notified TRIMs are concerned.

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The areas of intellectual property that it covers are: copyright and related rights (i.e. the
rights of performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting
organizations); trademarks including service marks; geographical including appellations of
origin; industrial designs; patents including the protection of new varieties of plants;
the layout-designs of integrated circuits; and undisclosed information including trade secrets
and test data.

Three main features of TRIPS :

• Standards

• Enforcement

• Dispute settlement

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