Renegotiating Trade Neutrality and Market Liberalization in WTOs Article XXIV of GATT - Coursework Example

Given that the Article XXIV of GATT is presently being re-negotiated as per the Doha Agenda, the paper identifies two contentious issues currently arising out of the article. The first of these contentious issues is and which the paper gives emphasis is the neutrality requirement as postulated by paragraph 5 of GATT Article XXIV and the coverage of liberalization with a specific bias to the definition of the ‘Substantially All Trade (SAT)’ requirement as postulated by paragraph 8 of GATT Article XXIV.

The paper goes on to examine these two issues from the perspective of developing countries such as the African, Caribbean and Pacific nations. It ultimately emerges that the two controversial issues if unresolved are set to deter the continuation of favorable treatment in trade between the developing nations and their developed trade partners. The paper argues that developing nations are not yet ready to compete in a global level if all third parties to RTA’s are given the same treatment and if SAT refers to all the tariff lines within an RAT. It is the argument of this paper that paragraphs 5 and 8 of Article XXIV of GATT, could lead to an adverse effect on developing nations if not redefined and given extra provisions during the ongoing Doha agenda negotiations.

The paper proves that African nations just like many of the developing nations have relied on favorable treatment by the EU for instance, to maintain a one-way trade in favor of the developing nations. It emerges that this scenario is not compatible with GATT’s legal requirement of neutrality and SAT. As such, the paper finds it important that developing nations actively participate in the ongoing negotiations to ensure that a provision is made for both of these Article XXIV issues to recognize and validate their favorable treatment in RTA’s between them and developed nations.

In conclusion the paper recommends to the developing nation’s negotiators that their goal be to seek for a provision for favourable treatment of developing nations in RTA’s that excludes third parties from the tariff reduction benefit. The paper emphasises that the negotiators must seek to make their favourable treatment RTA’s compatible with Article XXIV so as to enable a continuity of their North-South agreements.

List of Acronyms (Alphabetically)

• GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
• GATS: General Agreement on Trade in Services
• GSP: Generalized system of preferences
• LDC’s: Least Developed Countries
• MFN: Most Favoured Nations
• ORCs: Other Regulations of Commerce
• ORRC’s:Other Restrictive Regulations of Commerce
• REC’s: Regional Economic Communities
• RTA’s: Regional Trade Agreements
• S&D(treatment): Special & Differential
• SAT: Substantially all Trade
• SPS (Measures): Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures
• TBT: Technical Barriers to Trade
• TDCA: Trade and Development Cooperation Agreement