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WTO Principles of Non-Discrimination

The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with establishing rules for global trade. It aims to liberalize trade through principles like non-discrimination between trading partners, freer trade, fair competition, and economic development. The WTO works to promote trade without discrimination through policies like Most Favored Nation status, which requires countries to treat all trading partners equally in matters of trade, and National Treatment, which gives foreign and local entities equal treatment in a country's market. The WTO also sets rules for intellectual property through the TRIPS agreement, which establishes international standards for protecting copyrights, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property.

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20 views1 page

WTO Principles of Non-Discrimination

The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with establishing rules for global trade. It aims to liberalize trade through principles like non-discrimination between trading partners, freer trade, fair competition, and economic development. The WTO works to promote trade without discrimination through policies like Most Favored Nation status, which requires countries to treat all trading partners equally in matters of trade, and National Treatment, which gives foreign and local entities equal treatment in a country's market. The WTO also sets rules for intellectual property through the TRIPS agreement, which establishes international standards for protecting copyrights, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property.

Uploaded by

Sale Brankovic
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

4.

World Trade Organization

WTO deals with the rules of trade at a global level. It is an organization for liberalizing trade. It is
a place for settling trade disputes.
The WTO agreements are long and complex. Multilateral trading system is based on simple
principles such as: trade without discrimination, freer trade, promoting fair competition, and
encouraging development and economic reform.
Trade without discrimination can be split into two additional principles:
1. MFN (Most-favoured Nation) which means treating other people equally. Under WTO
agreements, countries cannot discriminate between their trading partners. This means
doing the same thing for all WTO members. MOST-FAVOURED sounds like a
contradiction because It sounds like a special treatment but in the WTO it means non-
discrimination - treating almost all equally. It is the first article of GATT (General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). MFN is also a priority in GATS (General Agreement
on Trade in Services, and on TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights). These three agreements cover all three main areas of WTO trade. Some
exceptions are allowed! For example, countries can set up a free trade agreement that
refers only to goods that are traded within the group, and discriminating goods from
outside.

That means every time a country lowers trade barrier or opens up a market, it has to do for the
same goods or services from all its trading partners.

2. National treatment which means treating foreigners and locals equally. This principle
of national treatment is found in the three main WTO agreements (GATT, GATS and
TRIPS). Charging customs duty on an import is not a violation of National Treatment
because this principle starts after a product/service enters a market.

The WTO agreement on TRIPS (1986-94, Uruguay) introduced intellectual property rules into the
multilateral trading system, because ideas and knowledge are an important part of trade. Creators
have right to negotiate payment if others use their inventions/innovations... These are called
"intellectual property rights". Their forms are: books, paintings, and films are copyrights,
inventions can be patented; brand names and product logos can be registered as trademarks, and
so on.

Types of intellectual property are: copyright, trademarks, industrial designs, patents, and
undisclosed information, including trade secrets.
The WTOs TRIPS Agreement is the way of changing how these rights are protected around the
world. It is an attempt to make them be common international rules. It is the minimum level of
protection that each government has to give to intellectual property of WTO members. So there is
a balance between the long term benefits and possible short term costs.

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