Unit-2: International trade and agreements

International trade agreements are pacts between countries that impact the prices and
availability of goods. These agreements can facilitate trade, reduce the cost of importing and
exporting, and remove barriers to trade and investment.

Types of International trade agreements:

An agreement between two countries is called “bilateral,” while an agreement between
several countries is “multilateral.” The countries bound by an international agreement are
generally referred to as “States Parties.

Paris Convention:
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on 20
March 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the
protection of industrial property. The convention is still in force in 2024. The substantive
provisions of the Convention fall into three main categories: national treatment, priority
right and common rules.

National treatment
According to Articles 2 and 3 of this treaty, juristic and natural persons who are either
national of or domiciled in a state party to the Convention shall, as regards the protection of
industrial property, enjoy in all the other countries of the Union, the advantages that their
respective laws grant to nationals.[2]

In other words, when an applicant files an application for a patent or a trademark in a foreign
country member of the Union, the application receives the same treatment as if it came from
a national of this foreign country. Furthermore, if the intellectual property right is granted
(e.g. if the applicant becomes owners of a patent or of a registered trademark), the owner
benefits from the same protections and the same legal remedy against any infringement as if
the owner was a national owner of this right.

Priority right
The "Convention priority right", also called "Paris Convention priority right" or "Union
priority right", was also established by Article 4 of the Paris Convention, and is regarded as
one of the cornerstones of the Paris Convention. [3] It provides that an applicant from one
contracting State shall be able to use its first filing date (in one of the contracting States) as
the effective filing date in another contracting State, provided that the applicant, or the
applicant's successor in title, files a subsequent application within 6 months (for industrial
designs and trademarks) or 12 months (for patents and utility models) from the first filing.

Temporary protection for goods shown at some international exhibitions

Article 11(1) of the Paris Convention requires that the Countries of the Union "grant
temporary protection to patentable inventions, utility models, industrial designs, and
trademarks, in respect of goods exhibited at official or officially recognized international
exhibitions held in the territory of any of them".[4]

If a patent or trademark registration is applied for during the temporary period of protection,
the priority date of the application may be counted "from the date of introduction of the
goods into the exhibition" rather than from the date of filing of the application, if the
temporary protection referred to in Article 11(1) has been implemented in such a manner in
national law.[4][5] There are, however, other means for the Countries of the Union to
implement in their national law the temporary protection provided for in Article 11 of the
Paris Convention.

It is also possible, for example, in the case of exhibited patentable inventions, to make
provision for temporary protection by other means, namely, by prescribing that, during a
certain period, such exhibition will not destroy the novelty of the invention and that the
person who exhibits the invention will also be protected against usurpation of his invention
by third parties. Still another possibility of protection consists in the recognition of a right of
prior use in favor of the exhibitor as against possible rights acquired by third parties.[5]
Mutual independence of patents and trademarks in the different Countries of the Union

According to Articles 4bis and 6 (for patents and trademarks respectively), for foreigners, the
application for a patent or the registration of a trademark shall be determined by the member
state in accordance with their national law and not by the decision of the country of origin or
any other countries. Patent applications and trademark registrations are independent among
contracting countries.
Contracting parties
Paris Convention members in 2022
As of 27 April 2024, the convention has 180 contracting member countries, which makes it
one of the most widely adopted treaties worldwide.

Administration
The Paris Convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) based in Geneva, Switzerland.

GATT agreement:
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many
countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or
eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its preamble, its purpose was
the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of
preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis."

The GATT was first discussed during the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create
the International Trade Organization (ITO). It was signed by 23 nations in Geneva on 30
October 1947, and was applied on a provisional basis 1 January 1948. [1] It remained in effect
until 1 January 1995, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established after
agreement by 123 nations in Marrakesh on 15 April 1994, as part of the Uruguay
Round Agreements. The WTO is the successor to the GATT, and the original GATT text
(GATT 1947) is still in effect under the WTO framework, subject to the modifications of
GATT 1994.

WTO:
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered
in Geneva, Switzerland[6] that regulates and facilitates international trade.[7] Governments use
the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade in
cooperation with the United Nations System.[7][8] The WTO is the world's largest international
economic organization, with 166 members representing over 98% of global trade and
global GDP.[9][10][11]
The WTO facilitates trade in goods, services and intellectual property among participating
countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements, which usually aim to
reduce or eliminate tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions; these agreements are signed by
representatives of member governments[12]: fol.9–10 and ratified by their legislatures.[13] It also
administers independent dispute resolution for enforcing participants' adherence to trade
agreements and resolving trade-related disputes.[14] The organization prohibits discrimination
between trading partners, but provides exceptions for environmental protection, national
security, and other important goals.[14]
It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh
Agreement, thus replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had
been established in 1948.

TRIPS:
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is
an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade
Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by national
governments of different forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other
WTO member nations.[4] TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990[5] and is
administered by the WTO.
General Agreement on Trade in Services

GATS:
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a treaty of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) which entered into force in January 1995 as a result of the Uruguay
Round negotiations. The treaty was created to extend the multilateral trading system
to service sector

TRIMS
The Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) are rules that are
applicable to the domestic regulations a country applies to foreign investors, often as part of
an industrial policy. The agreement, concluded in 1994, was negotiated under the WTO's
predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and came into force in
1995. The agreement was agreed upon by all members of the World Trade Organization.
Trade-Related Investment Measures is one of the four principal legal agreements of
the WTO trade treaty.

TRIMs are rules that restrict preference of domestic firms and thereby enable international
firms to operate more easily within foreign markets. Policies such as local content
requirements and trade balancing rules that have traditionally been used to both promote the
interests of domestic industries and combat restrictive business practices are now banned.