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
  The 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. > RTA Database
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Text of the 2006 General Council
Decision on the Transparency Mechanism for
Regional Trade Agreements
Facts
and figures back to top
-
RTA Database
Interactive access to the most up-to-date Information on Regional
Trade Agreements notified to the GATT/WTO.
- How
many regional trade agreements
have been notified to the GATT or the WTO?
> 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
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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
- 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.
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Special events
Analysis and publications
back to top
-
Multilateralizing
Regionalism: Challenges for the Global Trading System
(February 2009)
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WTO Discussion Paper N° 12: The
Changing Landscape of Regional Trade Agreements — Update 2006
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WTO Discussion Paper N° 8: The
Changing Landscape of Regional Trade Agreements
-
WTO Staff Working Paper: Services
liberalization in the new generation of Preferential Trade Agreements
(PTAs):
How much further than the GATS?
Contact Point:
back to top
Regional Trade Agreements Section
rta@wto.org
+41 (0)22 7396430
+41 (0)22 739 5774
External
links
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