UNDERSTANDING THE WTO: THE AGREEMENTS

Plurilaterals: of minority interest

For the most part, all WTO members subscribe to all WTO agreements. After the Uruguay Round, however, there remained four agreements, originally negotiated in the Tokyo Round, which had a narrower group of signatories and are known as plurilateral agreements. All other Tokyo Round agreements became multilateral obligations (i.e. obligations for all WTO members) when the World Trade Organization was established in 1995. The four were: trade in civil aircraft government procurement dairy products bovine meat. The bovine meat and dairy agreements were terminated in 1997.

Fair trade in civil aircraft back to top

The Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft entered into force on 1 January 1980. It now has 30 signatories. The agreement eliminates import duties on all aircraft, other than military aircraft, as well as on all other products covered by the agreement civil aircraft engines and their parts and components, all components and sub-assemblies of civil aircraft, and flight simulators and their parts and components. It contains disciplines on government-directed procurement of civil aircraft and inducements to purchase, as well as on government financial support for the civil aircraft sector. > more on civil aircraft

Government procurement: opening up for competition

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In most countries the government, and the agencies it controls, are together the biggest purchasers of goods of all kinds, ranging from basic commodities to hightechnology equipment. At the same time, the political pressure to favour domestic suppliers over their foreign competitors can be very strong. An Agreement on Government Procurement was first negotiated during the Tokyo Round and entered into force on 1 January 1981. Its purpose is to open up as much of this business as possible to international competition. It is designed to make laws, regulations, procedures and practices regarding government procurement more transparent and to ensure they do not protect domestic products or suppliers, or discriminate against foreign products or suppliers. The agreement has 28 members. It has two elements general rules and obligations, and schedules of national entities in each member country whose procurement is subject to the agreement. A large part of

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Understanding the WTO Basics Agreements

Overview Tariffs Agriculture Standards and safety Textiles Services Intellectual property Anti-dumping, subsidies etc Non-tariff barriers Plurilaterals Trade policy reviews

Settling disputes Cross-cutting and new issues

The Doha agenda

Developing countries The organization

Abbreviations

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