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U.S. ECONOMY > International Trade > Global Trade Agreements > World Intellectual Property Organization

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)

 

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