Sign up to E-News
Trade campaign
Trade glossary
Appellate body
Within the WTO, a body comprising three trade lawyers, who ultimately adjudicated on suspected violations of WTO rules. Cases are brought to the WTO by one member state against another.
Bilateral trade agreements
Trade agreements between two countries, thereby taking place outside of the multilateral institution, the WTO.
Cancun
The 5th Ministerial Conference of the WTO which took place in September 2003. Talks collapsed after developing countries refused to accept EU proposals for an expansion of WTO agreements into government procurement and trade facilitation.
Dispute settlement process
The process by which WTO rules are enforced. Countries can challenge each others' laws and regulations if they are suspected of violating WTO rules. Cases are ultimately adjudicated by an Appellate Body.
Doha
The 4th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in November 2001. A work programme was agreed for further trade liberalisation across WTO agreements, with an initial deadline of 1st January 2005.
Export
The provision of a good or service through selling it to another country.
Free trade
Allowing the trading of goods and services between countries to occur without government intervention. Freer trade is achieved through the policy of liberalisation.
EU Trade Commissioner
Currently Peter Mandelson, the Trade Commissioner directs the common trade policy of the European Union. All trade policy for EU member states is decided at EU-wide level. The Trade Commissioner is one of twenty Commissioners who run the European Commission (EC).
G20
A group of mainly middle-income developing countries formed prior to the Cancun Ministerial in 2003 to push for greater liberalisation in agriculture by the EU and US. There are currently around 17 members. The group has been headed by Brazil, India and South Africa.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Set up in 1950 to reduce tariffs and other barriers to trade. Until the Uruguay Round in 1986 it had concentrated mostly on trade in manufactured goods. Replaced by the WTO in 1995, of which it now forms one of the constituent agreements. It is concerned with barriers to trade in goods.
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
WTO agreement aimed at removing restrictions and internal government regulations in the area of service delivery that are considered to be barriers to trade. Originally agreed in 1994, negotiations are currently underway to expand the agreement further.
General council
The WTO's highest-level decision-making body in Geneva. It has representatives (usually ambassadors or equivalent) from all member governments and has the authority to act on behalf of the Ministerial Conference.
'Green Room' process
The procedure whereby a group of selected countries at a WTO Ministerial Conference work out compromises in isolation from other WTO member states.
Good
'Anything which can be dropped on your foot.'
Import
The provision of a good or service by purchasing it from another country.
Intellectual property
A category of public law that includes copyrights, patents and trademarks. These seek to give ownership to non-physical items such as concepts, ideas, wordings, and inventions.
Liberalisation
An economic policy or process that removes governments from interfering with and regulating economic transactions.
Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)
A proposed agreement on investment negotiated amongst OECD countries between 1995 and 1998. The aim of the MAI was to facilitate unrestricted capital investment flows between member countries. Proposals were shelved in 1998 but much of the essential substance of the MIA has and is being incorporated into other negotiations, notably in GATS and NAFTA.
Ministerial conference
The highest authority of the WTO. It includes all member nations and meets every two years, or when decided by member states, taking decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.
Most Favoured Nation (MFN)
A rule in GATS and other WTO agreements which states that all trading partners must be treated equally. For instance, under GATS, the MFN obligation requires that the most favourable treatment granted in any given sector covered by the GATS must be extended to all WTO member countries.
Quad
The group of rich nations (US, Canada, Japan and the European Union) that have dominated decisions in the past at the WTO. They have repeatedly made key decisions in closed meetings.
Seattle
The 3rd Ministerial Conference of the WTO held in December 1999. No agreement could be reached on an agenda for a further trade round, and so talks collapsed. Agreements launching a new trade round were reached at the Doha Ministerial Conference in 2001.
Service
'Anything that cannot be dropped on your foot.'
Singapore issues
Four issues that the EU has been pushing to be included within the mandate of the WTO since the Singapore Ministerial Conference in 1996. The four issues are: investment; competition policy; transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation. The majority of developing countries, including the Least Developed Country (LDC) group, the African Union, and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, have repeatedly stated their opposition to agreements on such issues in the WTO.
Subsidies
Government financial support for a domestic sector, thereby protecting the domestic market from imports, and making the sector more competitive internationally. They might do this through a straightforward grant or by exempting certain sectors from tax.
Tariff
A border tax on imports which raises the price of that good, making it less competitive in the market it is moving into.
Trade barriers
Government policies that in someway limit the entrance of foreign competition into domestic markets.
Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
WTO agreement on trade in intellectual property drawn up by the Uruguay Round of the GATT and implemented by the WTO. Covers a wide range of intellectual property issues, including patents on seeds and plants.
Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)
One of the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods, prohibiting trade-related investment measures, such as local content requirements.
Trade round
The linking together of trade negotiations on different issues over a period of years, in order that member countries can make trade-offs between different agreements.
Transnational Corporations (TNCs)
Companies that operate in more than one country but retain ownership and control in their home country.
Uruguay round
The trade round occurring between 1985 and 1997, which brought into international trade law for the first time a wide range of issues. These included agriculture, services and intellectual property rights, which had previously been under the control of individual countries.
World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Multilateral trading organisation comprising 146 member countries, and 32 nations with observer status, who accede to four major treaties governing almost every area of trade. Accession into the WTO binds all members to all treaties and all provisions within the treaties (subject to a few minor exceptions) although grace periods are granted to individual members states as to when implementation of treaty provisions take place. The four main WTO agreements are: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS); and Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS).
Print this page
