> Schedules of commitments
The texts reproduced here do not have the legal standing of the original documents which are entrusted and kept at the WTO Secretariat in Geneva.
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Special and differential provisions in the legal texts:
Developing countries, particularly least-developed countries, are given more flexibility in implementing certain WTO rules.
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Basic principles of the WTO system
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Introduction to the Agreements
“Understanding the WTO”
Consult the detailed index of the Uruguay Round legal texts.
Examples: “accession”, “decision-making”, “least-developed country Members”.
The Uruguay Round agreements back to top
The “Final Act” signed in Marrakesh in 1994 is like a cover note. Everything else is attached to this. Foremost is the
Agreement Establishing the WTO (or the WTO Agreement), which serves as an umbrella agreement. Annexed are the agreements on
goods,
services and
intellectual property,
dispute settlement,
trade policy review mechanism and the
plurilateral agreements. The
schedules of commitments
also form part of the Uruguay Round agreements.
Marrakesh Declaration of 15 April 1994 > browse text > pdf
Final Act > browse text > MS Word > pdf
Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization > summary > browse text > MS Word > pdf > interpretation
Annex 1
Annex 1A Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods > browse text > MS Word > pdf
Annex 1B General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) > summary > browse text > MS Word > pdf > interpretation
Annex 1C Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) > summary > browse text > MS Word > pdf > interpretation
Annex 2 Dispute Settlement Understanding > summary > browse text > MS Word > pdf > interpretation
Annex 3 Trade Policy Review Mechanism > browse text > MS Word > pdf > interpretation
Annex 4 Plurilateral Trade Agreements
Uruguay Round ministerial decisions and declarations back to top
Decisions adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee on 15 December 1993 and 14 April 1994
Declarations adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee on 15 December 1993
Decisions and declarations on anti-dumping (GATT Article VI) and subsidies and countervailing measures adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee on 15 December 1993
Understanding on Commitments in Financial Services
> browse text > MS Word (4 pages, 44KB) > pdf (4 pages, 39KB)
GATT 1947 back to top
The original agreement dealing with trade in goods, now incorporated into GATT 1994 (see above)
Post-1994 goods agreement (Information Technology Agreement)
> browse text > MS Word (18 pages, 146KB) > pdf
(18 pages, 54KB)
Post-1994 GATS protocols back to top
These are additional agreements negotiated after the Uruguay Round and attached to the General Agreement on Trade in Services. There is no “First Protocol”. The related schedules of commitments can be ordered from the online bookshop.
Post-1994 accession protocols back to top
These are the negotiated terms of membership for countries joining the WTO after it was created on 1 January 1995. They include each new member’s schedules of commitments.
Countries’ schedules of commitments back to top
These schedules contain the commitments made by individual WTO members allowing specific foreign products or service-providers access to their markets. The schedules are integral parts of the agreements. In the print version these schedules comprise about 30,000 pages for all WTO Members.
Goods
For goods in general: binding commitments on tariffs. For agriculture: tariffs, combinations of tariffs and quotas, export subsidies and some types of domestic support.
Services
Binding commitments on how much access foreign service providers are allowed for specific sectors. Includes lists types of services where individual countries say they are not applying the “most-favoured-nation” principle of non-discrimination.
- Services database.
Find consolidated schedules of commitments and MFN exemptions
by country, sector, and mode of supply. Data covers the period
January 1995 to December 1999. Does not include data on
current negotiations or on countries which joined the WTO
since January 2000.
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Protocols of accession for countries joining the WTO after 1995
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Help on how to read a services schedule
Other major legal instruments back to top
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Preferential treatment for least-developed countries — Decision on Waiver, 1999
> browse text
> MS Word (2 pages, 35KB)
> pdf (2 pages, 9KB)
Examples: “accession”, “decision-making”, “least-developed country Members”.
Index:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X, Y, Z
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