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WTO legal texts
Most of the WTO agreements are the result of the 1986–94 Uruguay Round negotiations, signed at the Marrakesh ministerial meeting in April 1994. There are about 60 agreements and decisions totalling 550 pages.
Negotiations since then have produced additional legal texts such as the Information Technology Agreement, services and accession protocols. New negotiations were launched at the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001.
> See also pre-WTO legal texts
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 > pdf
Final Act > pdf
Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization > pdf
Annex 1
Annex 1A Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods > pdf
- GATT 1994 > pdf
(Must be read with GATT 1947, see below)
Other duties and charges (GATT Art.II:l(b)), Understanding > pdf
State trading enterprises (GATT Art.XVII), Understanding > pdf
Balance-of-payments, Understanding > pdf
Regional trade agreements (GATT Art.XXIV) > pdf
Waivers of Obligations, Understanding > pdf
Concession withdrawal (GATT Art.XXVIII), Understanding > pdf
Marrakesh Protocol to the GATT 1994 > pdf
- Agriculture > pdf
- Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures > pdf
- Textiles and Clothing > pdf
Note: this Agreement was terminated on 1 January 2005. See Textiles
- Technical Barriers to Trade > pdf
- Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) > pdf
- Anti-dumping (Article VI of GATT 1994) > pdf
- Customs valuation (Article VII of GATT 1994) > pdf
- Preshipment Inspection > pdf
- Rules of Origin > pdf
- Import Licensing > pdf
- Subsidies and Countervailing Measures > pdf
- Safeguards > pdf
Annex 1B General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) > pdf
Annex 1C Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) > pdf
Annex 2 Dispute Settlement Understanding > pdf
Annex 3 Trade Policy Review Mechanism > pdf
Annex 4 Plurilateral Trade Agreements
- Annex 4(a) Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft > pdf
- Annex 4(b) Agreement on Government Procurement > pdf
- Annex 4(c) International Dairy Agreement > pdf
Note: this Agreement was terminated end 1997. See document IDA/8
- Annex 4(d) International Bovine Meat Agreement > pdf
Note: this Agreement was terminated end 1997. See document IMA/8
Uruguay Round ministerial decisions and declarations back to top
Decisions adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee on 15 December 1993 and 14 April 1994
- Measures in favour of least-developed countries > pdf
- Notification procedures > pdf
- Agriculture: measures concerning the possible negative effects of the reform programme on least-developed and net food-importing developing countries > pdf
- Textiles and clothing: notification of first integration under Article 2.6 > pdf
- Technical barriers to trade:
Proposed Understanding on WTO-ISO Standards Information System > pdf
Review of the ISO/IEC Information Centre Publication > pdf
- Customs valuation (GATT Article VII):
Cases where customs administrations have reasons to doubt the truth or accuracy of the declared value > pdf
Minimum values and imports by sole agents, sole distributors and sole concessionaires > pdf
- Services:
Institutional arrangements for the GATS > pdf
Certain dispute settlement procedures for the GATS > pdf
Trade in services and the environment > pdf
Negotiations on movement of natural persons > pdf
Financial services > pdf
Negotiations on maritime transport services > pdf
Negotiations on basic telecommunications > pdf
Professional services > pdf
- Government procurement: accession to the agreement > pdf
- Dispute settlement: application and review of the Dispute Settlement Understanding > pdf
- Agreement Establishing the WTO: acceptance of and accession to the agreement > pdf
- Trade and environment > pdf
- Organization and financial consequences flowing from implementation of the Agreement Establishing the WTO > pdf
- Establishment of the Preparatory Committee for the WTO > pdf
Declarations adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee on 15 December 1993
- Contribution of the WTO to achieving greater coherence in global economic policymaking > pdf
- Relationship of the WTO with the International Monetary Fund > pdf
Decisions and declarations on anti-dumping (GATT Article VI) and subsidies and countervailing measures adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee on 15 December 1993
- Decision on anti-circumvention > pdf
- Decision on review of Article 17.6 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement > pdf
Declaration on dispute settlement pursuant to the Anti-Dumping and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures agreements > pdf
Understanding on Commitments in Financial Services
> pdf (4 pages, 39KB)
GATT 1947 back to top
The original agreement dealing with trade in goods, now incorporated into GATT 1994 (see above)
- Download in pdf (105 pages, 353KB)
Post-1994 goods agreement (Information Technology Agreement)
> 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.
- Second protocol: financial services > pdf (1 page, 7KB)
- Third protocol: movement of natural persons > pdf (1 page, 10KB)
- Fourth protocol: basic telecommunications > pdf (1 page, 9KB)
- Fifth protocol: financial services > pdf (1 page, 7KB)
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 (opens a new window). 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.
- Protocols of accession for countries joining the WTO after 1995
Help on how to read a services schedule
Other major legal instruments back to top
Preferential treatment for least-developed countries — Decision on Waiver, 1999
> pdf (2 pages, 9KB)
