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Issues covered by the WTO’s committees and agreements

Regional trade agreements

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have become in recent years a very prominent feature of the Multilateral Trading System (MTS).

The surge in RTAs has continued unabated since the early 1990s. Some 380 RTAs have been notified to the GATT/WTO up to July 2007. Of these, 300 RTAs were notified under Article XXIV of the GATT 1947 or GATT 1994; 22 under the Enabling Clause; and 58 under Article V of the GATS. At that same date, 205 agreements were in force.

If we take into account RTAs which are in force but have not been notified, those signed but not yet in force, those currently being negotiated, and those in the proposal stage, we arrive at a figure of close to 400 RTAs which are scheduled to be implemented by 2010. Of these RTAs, free trade agreements (FTAs) and partial scope agreements account for over 90%, while customs unions account for less than 10 %.

See also
> Negotiations on RTAsClick for Doha Development Agenda gateway
> Negotiations, implementation and development: the Doha agenda

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See also:
> The Rules Negotiations

 

> Consult the Guide to downloading files.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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News  back to top

  

Introduction  back to top

Scope of RTAs

> See also: Regionalism — friends or rivals?
Explanation from “Understanding the WTO”, the introduction to the WTO.

 

The mandate  back to top

The WTO’s rules on regional trade agreements

A brief explanation

Text of GATT Art XXIV, Ad Art XXIV and its updates, including the 1994 “Understanding”.

Enabling Clause for developing countries.
Text of the 1979 GATT decision allowing preferential trade in goods among developing countries.

Text of GATS Article V

Find decisions of WTO bodies concerning the regional trade agreements in the Analytical Index — Guide to WTO Law and Practice

Click for Doha Development Agenda gatewayThe Doha negotiating mandate
Section on regional trade agreements in the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration

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Examples of regional trade agreements

Among the best known are 

- The European Union, 

- The European Free Trade Association (EFTA),  

- The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),  

- The Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), 

- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area (AFTA), and  

- The Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). 

  

There are many others. 

> Regional trade agreements and definitions
 

 

Transparency Mechanism for RTAs
> Dedicated webpage on the Decision of 14 December 2006
 

Text of the 2006 General Council Decision on the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements

  

Facts and figures  back to top

We recommend viewing these documents in MS Excel rather than with viewer software such as QuickView because formatting may change. The documents contain hyperlinks (when available) to the text of the Agreement and the corresponding annexes and protocols. Note: Hyperlinks are only accessible from downloaded MS Excel documents.
 - By alphabetical order 
 - By date of entry into force
 - By type of agreement
 - By GATT/WTO related provision
 - By status in the examination process

Search Documents Online
 General documents on regional trade agreements bear the document code WT/REG/* (where * takes additional values).
These links open a new window: allow a moment for the results to appear. 

The script below will retrieve all WTO documents for a particular RTA, with the exception of documents created prior to 1995, which are not in the database.
NB. The search may return documents for an agreement that is no longer in force.

  • Regional Trade Agreements (alphabetical list by RTA) (Document code “varies”)  
      > search    > help

> See also RTA negotiations documents


> See also Transparency Mechanism communications (early announcements of RTAs, notifications of changes, etc.)

 

Work on regional trade agreements in the WTO, and official documents  back to top

Work on this subject is handled by the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, which reports to the Goods Council.

The WTO’s Committee on Regional Trade Agreements

Search Documents Online
 General documents on regional trade agreements bear the document code WT/REG/*. Under the Doha agenda’s trade negotiations mandate, they use TN/RL/* (where * takes additional values).
These links open a new window: allow a moment for the results to appear.

> help with downloading these documents

  • Annual reports of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements to the General Council (Document code WT/REG/* and keyword “report”)    > search
  • Minutes of the meetings of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (Document code WT/REG/M/*)    > search
  • Working documents of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (Document code WT/REG/W/*)  
      > search
  • Biennial Reports on the operation of the Agreement (Document code WT/REG* and R and keyword “communication*”)  
      > search
  • General documents (Document code “varies”)    > search

> See also RTA negotiations documents

You can perform more sophisticated searches from the Documents Online search facility (opens in new window) by defining multiple search criteria such as document symbol (i.e. code number), full text search or document date.

  

Special events

 

Analysis and publications  back to top

 

Contact Point:  back to top

Regional Trade Agreements Section
rta@wto.org
+41 (0)22 7396430
+41 (0)22 739 5774

  

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