1. The WTO-GATT Agreement 1994
Achim Seiler,
Trade Consultant and Capacity Building Specialist
EU-Project: Trade and Private Sector Development (TPSD)
TPSD is implemented by
in cooperation with
and

2. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
a) GATT 1947
b) GATT 1994

3. GATT 1947

4. Structure I (Part I) General Most-Favored-Nation Treatment
(any advantage, favor, privilege or immunity granted by any contracting party to any product originating in or destined for any other country shall be accorded immediately and unconditionally to the like product originating in or destined for the territories of all other contracting parties)
Schedules of Concessions
(each contracting party shall accord to the commerce of the other contracting parties treatment no less favorable than that provided for in the appropriate Part of the appropriate Schedule annexed to this Agreement)

5. Structure II (Part II)
National Treatment on Internal Taxation and Regulation
(the products of the territory of any contracting party imported into the territory of any other contracting party shall be accorded treatment no less favorable than that accorded to like products of national origin in respect of all laws, regulations and requirements affecting their internal sale, offering for sale, purchase, transportation, distribution or use)
Special Provisions relating to Cinematograph Films
(internal quantitative regulations relating to exposed cinematograph films shall take the form of specific screen quotas)

6. Structure III (Part II)
Freedom of Transit
(All charges and regulations imposed by contracting parties on traffic in transit to or from the territories of other contracting parties shall be reasonable, having regard to the conditions of the traffic)
Anti-dumping and Countervailing Duties
(in order to offset or prevent dumping, a contracting party may levy on any dumped product an anti-dumping duty not greater in amount than the marign of dumping in respect of such product)

7. Structure IV (Part II) Valuation for Customs Purposes
(the value for customs purposes of imported merchandise should be based on the actual value of the imported merchandise on which duty is assessed, or of like merchandise, and should not be based on the value of merchandise of national origin or on arbitrary or fictitious values)
Fees and Formalities connected with importation and Exportation
(all fees and charges other than import and export duties shall be limited in amount to the approximate cost of services rendered and shall not represent an indirect protection to domestic products or a taxation for fiscal purposes)

8. Structure V (Part II) Marks of Origin
(each contracting party shall accord to the products of the territories of other contracting parties treatment with regard to marking requirements no less favorable than the treatment accorded to like products of any third country)
Publication and Administration of Trade Regulations
(laws, regulations, judicial decisions and administrative rulings of general application pertaining to the classification or the valuation of products for customs purposes, or affecting their sale, distribution, transportation, etc. shall be published promptly in such a manner as to enable governments and traders to become acquainted with them)

9. Structure VI (Part II)
General Elimination of Quantitative Restrictions
(no prohibitions or restrictions other than duties, taxes or other charges, whether made effective through quotas, import or export licenses or other measures, shall be instituted or maintained on the im- or exportation or sale of any product)
Restrictions to Safeguard the Balance of Payments
(in order to safeguard its external financial position and its balance of payments, any contracting party may restrict the quantity or value of merchandise permitted to be imported, subject to specific conditions)

10. Structure VII (Part II)
Non-discriminatory Administration of Quantitative Restrictions
(in applying import restrictions to any product, contracting parties shall aim at a distribution of trade in such product approaching as closely as possible the shares which the various contracting parties might be expected to obtain in the absence of such restrictions)
Exceptions to the Rule of Non-Discrimination
(a contracting party which is applying import restrictions may, with the consent of the contracting parties, temporarily deviate from the respective provisions in respect of a small part of its external trade, subject to certain conditions)

11. Structure VIII (Part II)
Exchange Arrangements
(The contracting parties shall seek co-operation with the International Monetary Fund to the end that the contracting parties and the Fund may pursue a co-ordinated policy with regard to the exchange questions within the jurisdiction of the Fund and questions of quantitative restrictions and other trade measures within the jurisdiction of the contracting parties)
Subsidies
(subsidies in general – additional provisions on export subsidies)

12. Structure IX (Part II) State Trading Enterprises
(a state trading enterprise shall, in its purchases or sales involving either imports or exports, act in a manner consistent with the general principles of non-discriminatory treatment prescribed for governmental measures affecting imports or exports by private traders)
Governmental Assistance to Economic Development
(the contracting parties recognize that it may be necessary in order to implement programmes and policies of economic development designed to raise the general standard of living of their people, to take protective or other measures affecting imports)

13. Structure X (Part II)
Emergency Action on Imports of Particular Products
(Subject to specific conditions: if any product is being imported into the territory of a contracting party in increased quantities causing or threatening to cause serious injury to domestic producers in that country, the contracting party shall be free to suspend obligations in whole or in part in order to prevent or remedy such injury)
General Exceptions
(measures to protect public morals, human, animal or plant life or health, protection of national treasures of artistic, historic or archeological value, etc.)

14. Structure XI (Part II) Security Exceptions
(measures necessary for the protection of essential interests relating to fissionable materials, traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war, or taken in time of war or other emergency in international relations)
Consultation
(each contracting party shall accord sympathetic consideration to, and shall afford adequate opportunity for consultation regarding, such representations as may be made by another contracting party with respect to any matter affecting the operation of this Agreement)

15. Structure XII (Part II)
Nullification or Impairment
(if any contracting party should consider that any benefit accruing to it directly or indirectly under this Agreement is being nullified or impaired, the contracting party may make written representations or proposals with a view to the satisfactory adjustment of the matter
failure of another contracting party to carry out its obligations under this Agreement, or
the application by another contracting party of any measure, whether or not it conflicts with the provisionsn of this Agreement, or
the existence of any other situation

16. Structure XIII (Part III)
Territorial Application – Frontier Traffic – Customs Unions and Free-trade Areas
(the provisions of this Agreement shall apply to the metropolitan customs territories of the contracting parties and to any other customs territories in respect of which this Agreement his been accepted or is being applied)
Joint Action by the Contracting Parties
(Representatives of the contracting parties shall meet from time to time for the purpose of giving effect to those provisions of this Agreement which involve joint action and, generally, with a view to facilitating the operation and furthering the objectives of the Agreement)

17. Structure XIV (Part III)
Acceptance, Entry into Force and Registration
(this Agreement shall be open for acceptance by any contracting party which, on 1 March 1955, was a contracting party or was negotiating with a view to accession to this Agreement)
Withholding or Withdrawal of Concessions
(Any contracting party shall at any time be free to withhold or to withdraw in whole or in part any concession, provided for in the appropriate Schedule annexed to this Agreement, in respect of which such contracting party determines that it was initially negotiated with a government which has not become, or has ceased to b, a contracting party)

18. Structure XV (Part II) Modification of Schedules
(a contracting party may, by negotiation and agreement with any contracting party with which such concession was initially negotiated and with any other contracting party determined by the contracting parties to have a principal supplying interest and subject to consultation with any other contracting party determined by the contracting parties to have a substantial interest in such concession, modify or withdraw a concession included in the appropriate schedule annexed to this Agreement )

19. Structure XVI (Tariff Negotiations)
(negotiations under this article may be carried our on a selective product-by-product basis or by the application of such multilateral procedures as may be accepted by the contracting parties concerned)
The Relation of this Agreement to the Havanna Charter
(The contracting parties undertake to observe to the fullest extent of their executive authority the general principles of Chapters I to VI inclusive and of chapter IX of the Havanna Charter pending their acceptance of it in accordance with their constitutional procedures)

20. Structure XVII (Part III)
Amendments
(amendments to the provisions of part I of this Agreement or the provisions of Article XXIX or of this article shall become effective upon acceptance by all the contracting parties, and other amendments to this Agreement shall become effective, in respect of those contracting parties which accept them, upon acceptance by two-thirds of the contracting parties)
Withdrawal
(any contracting party may withdraw from this Agreement. The withdrawal shall take effect upon the expiration of six months from the day on which written notice of withdrawal is received by the Secretary-General of the United Nations)

21. Structure XVIII (Part III)
Contracting parties
(the contracting parties to this Agreement shall be understood to mean those governments which are applying the provisions of this Agreement under Articles XXVI or XXXIII or pursuant to the Protocol of Provisional Application)
Accession
(A government not party to this Agreement, or a government acting on behalf of a separate customs territory possessing full autonomy in the conduct of its external commercial relations, may accede to this Agreement, on its behalf or on the behalf of that territory, on terms to be agreed between such government and the contracting parties)

22. Structure XIX (Part III)
Annexes
(The annexes to this Agreement are herby made an integral part of this Agreement)
Non-Application of the Agreement between Particular Contracting Parties
(subject to specific conditions, the Agreement shall not apply as between any contracting party and any other contracting party

23. Structure XX (Part IV) Principles and Objectives
(the developed contracting parties do not expect reciprocity for commitments made by them in trade negotiations to reduce or remove tariffs and other barriers to the trade of less-developed countries)
Commitments
(The developed contracting parties shall to the fulles extent possible accord high priority to the reduction and elimination of barriers to products currently or potentially of particular export interest to less-developed contracting parties, including customs duties and other restrictions, which differentiate unreasonably between such products in their primary and in their processed form)

24. Structure XXI (Part IV)
Joint Action
(contracting parties shall, where appropriate, take action, including action through international arrangements, to provide improved and acceptable conditions of access to worlds markets for primary products of particular interest to less-developed contracting parties and to devise measures designed to stabilize and improve conditions of world markets in these products including measures designed to attain stable, equitable and remunerative prices for exports of such products)

25. GATT 1994

26. Structure I
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (“GATT 1994” shall consist of:
a) the provisions in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, dated 30 October 1947 (excluding the Protocol of Provisional Application), as rectified, amended or modified (...)
b) the provisions and the legal instruments which have entered into force under the GATT 1947 before the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement
c) the Understandings set forth below
d) the Marrakesh Protokoll to GATT 1994

27. Structure II
Understanding on the Interpretation of Article II:1(b) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(other duties or charges shall be bound and recorded in the Schedules in respect of all tariff bindings at the levels applying on 15 April 1994)
Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XVII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(definition of state trading enterprises: “Governmental and non-governmental enterprises, including marketing boards, which have been granted exclusive or special rights or privileges, including statutory or constitutional powers, in the exercise of which they influence through their purchases or sales the level or direction of imports or exports.”

28. Structure III
Understanding on the Balance-of-Payments Provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(Application of measures, procedures for balance-of-payments consultations, notification and documentation, conclusion of balance-of-payments consultations)
Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(evaluation of the general incidence of duties and other regulations of commerce applicable before and after the formation of a customs union; review of customs unions and free-trade areas

29. Structure IV
Understanding in Respect of Waivers of Obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(Any Member considering that a benefit accruing to it under GATT 1994 is being nullified or impaired in connection with a waiver may invoke the provisions of Article XXIII (Nullification or Impairment) of GATT 1994
Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXVIII of the General agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(For the purposes of modification or withdrawal of a concession, the Member which has the highest ratio of exports affected by the concession to its total exports shall be deemed to have a principal supplying interest)

30. Structure V
Marrakesh Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(the schedule annexed to this Protocol relating to a member shall become a Schedule to GATT 1994 relating to that Member on the day on which the WTO Agreement enters into force for that Member. The implementation of the concessions and commitments contained in the schedules annexed to this Protocol shall, upon request, be subject to multilateral examination by the Members)