-------------- N -------------- NAFTA. See North American Free Trade Agreement. NAM See Non-Aligned Movement. NATIONAL TREATMENT. A basic principle of international trade rules and policy. National treatment obligations generally prohibit discrimination on the basis of foreign nationality. GATT Article III, the central national treatment obligation in GATT, prohibits discrimination between imported and domestically produced goods with respect to internal taxation or other government regulation. See also Codes of Conduct; Restrictive Business Practices; and Unfair Trade Practices. NEGOTIATIONS. Bargaining between and among representatives of governments seeking a mutually beneficial exchange of concessions. See also Concession; Multilateral Trade Negotiations; Offer List; Principal Supplier; Reciprocity; Request List; Round; and United States Trade Representative. NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMIES (NIEs). Relatively advanced developing countries whose industrial production and exports have grown rapidly in recent years. Examples include Brazil, Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico, Singapore and Taiwan. See also Developing Countries; and Graduation. NIEs. See Newly Industrializing Economies. NOMINAL TARIFF RATE. The rate of duty charged on the gross value of a given product. See also Effective Tariff Rate; Tariff; and Tariff Escalation. NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT (NAM). A loose coalition of developing countries that meets at the head of state level every few years in an attempt to coordinate positions on international political and economic issues. The movement traces its conceptual foundations to the Asian-African Conference at Bandung in 1955, under the inspiration of India (Nehru),Egypt (Nasser) and Yugoslavia (Tito). The first NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade in 1961; the second in Cairo in 1964; the third in Lusaka in 1970; the fourth in Algiers in 1973; the fifth in Colombo in 1976;the sixth in Havana in 1980; and the seventh in New Delhi in 1983. These countries now meet under the auspices of the Group of 77. Their last meeting took place in Tehran in November 1991. A goal of that meeting was to prepare a developing country position for the February 1992 UNCTAD VIII Conference. See also Group of 77. NON-DISCRIMINATION. See Discrimination; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; and Most-Favored-Nation Treatment. NON-MARKET ECONOMY. A national economy in which the government seeks to determine economic activity largely through a mechanism of central planning, as in the former Soviet Union, in contrast to a market economy which depends heavily upon market forces to allocate productive resources. In a "non-market" economy, production targets, prices, costs, investment allocations, raw materials, labor, international trade and most other economic aggregates are manipulated within a national economic plan drawn up by a central planning authority; hence, the public sector makes the major decisions affecting demand and supply within the national economy. See also Group D; Macroeconomics; Market Economy; Private Sector; Public Sector; and State Trading Nations. NON-RECIPROCITY. See Framework Agreement; Reciprocity. NON-TARIFF BARRIERS (NTBs). Government measures other than tariffs that restrict imports. Such measures have become relatively more conspicuous impediments to trade as tariffs have been reduced during the period since World War II. See also Codes of Conduct; Concession; Consular Formalities and Documentation; Exchange Controls; Export Subsidies; Government Procurement Policies and Practices; Licensing; Non-Tariff Measures; Packaging, Labeling and Marking Regulations; Prior Deposits; Quantitative Restrictions; Quarantine, Sanitary and Health Laws and Regulations;Road Tax; Services; Special and Differential Treatment; Specific Limitations on Trade; Standards; Subsidy; Trade Agreements Act of 1979; Transparency; and U.S. International Trade Commission. NON-TARIFF MEASURES (NTMS). Government measures that may have a potential for restricting international trade even though they may not always do so, such as import monitoring systems and variable levies, as well as measures that are internationally perceived as trade restrictive, even though a trade-restricting intent or effect cannot objectively be ascribed to them. See also Non-Tariff Barriers; and Variable Levy. NORTH. See Developed Countries. NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA). In June 1991 the United States, Canada and Mexico initiated negotiation of a comprehensive free trade agreement aimed at: eliminating over a mutually agreed upon time period all tariffs on trade between the three countries; reducing impediments to trade in services; removing most restrictions on foreign investment among the signatory countries; ensuring adequate intellectual property protection. The negotiations were concluded in August 1992, and the draft text is structured along the lines of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement. The Clinton administration negotiated supplemental agreements on labor and environmental issues, and Congress approved the whole package of NAFTA agreements in November 1993. President Clinton signed the legislation into law in December. NAFTA went into effect January 1, 1994.It is being viewed as a testing ground for possible future agreements to be negotiated under the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative. See also Common External Tariff; Customs Union; Enterprise for the Americas Initiative; Free Trade Area Agreement; General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade; U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement; and U.S.-Canada Trade Commission. NORTH-SOUTH TRADE. The exchange of goods and services between developed countries (the "North") and developing countries(the "South"). The Generalized System of Preferences negotiated at UNCTAD II and the Framework Agreement negotiated in the Tokyo Round were intended to stimulate additional North-South Trade. See also Developed Countries; Developing Countries; Framework Agreement; Generalized System of Preferences; International Trade Center UNCTAD/GATT; Reciprocity; Special and Differential Treatment; and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. NTBs. See Non-Tariff Barriers. NTMs. See Non-Tariff Measures. NULLIFICATION (OF TRADE RIGHTS). See Consultations; and Dispute Settlement.