Part III World Trade Law and Regional Trade Agreements, XIV The GATT

Subject(s):

International investment law — International monetary law — Most-favoured-nation treatment (MFN) — Specific trade agreements

This chapter is an overview of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT) and its functions. GATT aims at international trade liberalization by progressively eliminating or restricting barriers to trade and other protectionist interferences with competition on the world market as well as the national markets. The fundamental principles of GATT are the principle of non-discrimination, in the form of the most-favoured-nation principle and the national treatment principle, and the principle of liberalization by means of the elimination or restriction of tariffs as well as of non-tariff barriers to trade. Reciprocity is another important principle of GATT. The principle of reciprocity refers to a balance of mutual benefits and obligations between the contracting parties.