-------------- P -------------- PACKAGING, LABELING AND MARKING REGULATIONS. The requirement or regulation, usually by the importing country, that imported goods be packaged, labeled or marked according to particular guidelines. Although ostensibly required to protect consumers, non-standard packaging, labeling and marking requirements frequently pose problems for exporters and may function as non-tariff barriers. See also Non-Tariff Barriers; Quarantine, Sanitary, and Health Laws and Regulations; and Standards. PANEL OF EXPERTS. An ad hoc group of experienced individuals with specialized skills established for specified purposes. Under GATT dispute settlement procedures, for example, panels composed of three to five trade policy experts may be designated to arbitrate disagreements over trade policy between governments with differing interpretations of their GATT obligations. See also Arbitration; Codes of Conduct; Dispute Settlement; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; and Working Party. PAR VALUE. The official fixed exchange rate between two currencies or between a currency and a specific weight of gold or a basket of currencies. See also Currency; Exchange Rate; and International Monetary Fund. PARIS CLUB. A popular designation for meetings between representatives of a developing country that wishes to renegotiate its "official" debt (normally excluding debts owed by and to the private sector without official guarantees) and representatives of the relevant creditor governments and international institutions. Such meetings normally take place at the initiative of a debtor country that wishes to consolidate all or part of its debt service payments falling due over a specified period. The meetings are traditionally chaired by a senior official of the French Treasury Department. Comparable meetings occasionally take place in London and in New York for countries that wish to renegotiate repayment terms for their debts to private banks. Such meetings are sometimes called "creditor clubs." PARIS CONFERENCE ON THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. See Substantial New Program of Action. PARIS UNION. See World Intellectual Property Organization. PART IV OF THE GATT: Articles XXXVI, XXXVII, and XXXVIII of the GATT, added to the General Agreement in 1965, concerning the special needs of the developing countries (LDCs). Outlines principles and objectives for GATT treatment of LDCs, committing Contracting Parties to assist these countries through trade liberalization, and laying down the principle that developed countries should not expect LDCs, in the course of trade negotiations, to make contributions inconsistent with their individual needs. See also Framework Agreement; and Enabling Clause. PATENT. A patent is a 17-year grant by the government which covers any new, useful and non-obvious process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter or any new, useful and obvious improvements thereof. The grant is the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention for that period of time after which it passes into the public domain. See also Intellectual Property; Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; Technology; Transfer of Technology; and World Intellectual Property Organization. PERIL POINT. A hypothetical limit beyond which a reduction in tariff protection would cause serious injury to a domestic industry. U.S. legislation in 1949 that extended the Trade Agreements Act of 1934 required the Tariff Commission to establish such "peril points" for U.S. industries. This requirement, which was a constraint on U.S. negotiating positions in early GATT Rounds, was eliminated by the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. See also Protection; Round; Safeguards; Trade Agreements Act of 1934; Trade Expansion Act of 1962; and U.S. International Trade Commission. PETITION. See Countervailing Duties; Dumping; and Escape Clause. PL 480. See Public Law 480. PLAZA ACCORD. An agreement in September 1985 by the G-5 (the United States, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom) to take concrete actions aimed at reducing external imbalances and achieving exchange rates consistent with underlying economic fundamentals. See also Group of 7. PORT OF ENTRY. Point at which individuals and imported goods enter a country and clear its national customs. See also Customs; and Transit Zone. POTENTIAL UNCOLLECTED DUMPING DUTY (PUDD). The aggregate amount of dumping for all U.S. sales of covered merchandise by a foreign manufacturer. In an initial anti-dumping investigation, this value is used to determine the prospective dumping margin. It is called potential uncollected dumping duty because it represents the amount of duty that the importer would owe if an annual review were conducted. See also Dumping; Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988; and Tariff. PPA. See Protocol of Provisional Application. PREFERENCES. Special advantages extended by importing countries to exports from particular trading partners, usually by admitting their goods at tariff rates below those imposed on imports from other supplying countries. See also Double-Column Tariff; Framework Agreement; Generalized System of Preferences; Global System of Trade Preferences; Lome Convention; Margin of Preferences; Single-Column Tariff; Special and Differential Treatment; and Tariff. PREMIUM. A regular payment paid for an insurance policy that provides protection against a risk. See also Insurance. PRICE. The value of something expressed in terms of money, or the amount of money paid for it. Economists define the "equilibrium" price of goods and services in a competitive market economy as the level at which demand for them will match their supply. See also Demand; Equilibrium; Goods; Inflation; Market Economy; Market Forces; Microeconomics; Money; Monopoly; Services; and Supply. PRICE ELASTICITY OF DEMAND. The percentage change in demand for a given product likely to result if its price changes by one percent.A slight lowering or raising of a tariff will have a larger effect on the volume of imports of a product with a high price elasticity of demand than the same tariff change will affect imports of a product with a low price elasticity of demand. See also Demand; Price; and Purchasing Power. PRICE ELASTICITY OF SUPPLY. The percentage change in supply for a given product likely to result if its price changes by one percent. See also Price; and Supply. PRICE STABILIZATION. See Buffer Stocks; and Managed Trade. PRIMARY COMMODITY. A commodity in its raw or unprocessed state, such as iron ore. In contrast, pig iron is considered a semi-processed product, and a steel girder is a manufactured item. See also Commodity; Integrated Program for Commodities; Production; and Tariff Escalation. PRINCIPAL SUPPLIER. The country that is the most important source of a particular product imported by another country. In GATT negotiations, a country offering to reduce its tariff or other barriers to imports of a particular item generally expects the principal supplier of that item to reduce restrictions on its imports of a product for which the first country is the principal supplier. Both countries then automatically grant the same concessions to all other countries to which they accord most-favored-nation treatment, including all Contracting Parties to GATT. See also Concession; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; Item-by-Item Negotiations; Most-Favored-Nation Treatment; Negotiations; Offer List; and Round. PRIOR DEPOSITS. Governments sometimes require that an importer deposit, in domestic or foreign currency, a specified sum,usually corresponding to a certain percentage of the value of the imported product. Such deposits are characteristically held without interest, sometimes for many months -- from the time an order is placed until after the import transaction is completed -- and hence represent a real cost. The purpose of prior deposits is usually to discourage imports, particularly for balance-of-payments reasons, and they generally are recognized as non-tariff barriers that impede trade. Prior deposits must usually be made at the time an import license is granted. See also Licensing; and Non-Tariff Barriers. PRIVATE SECTOR. The part of a national economy comprised of privately owned enterprises and individuals and non-profit making organizations, as contrasted with the public sector, comprising government and government-controlled entities. See also Market Economy; Official Development Assistance; Price; and Public Sector. PROCESS PATENT. A process patent is a process or method which consists of an act, operation or step or series thereof performed upon a specified subject matter to produce a physical result. See also Patent. PROCUREMENT. See Government Procurement Policies and Practices. PRODUCER GOODS. See Capital Goods. PRODUCTION. The process of creating or changing the form of commodities, as through fabrication, manufacture, extraction, processing, curing or aging. See also Commodity; Consumption; Industrial Revolution; Management; Primary Commodity; Profit; Tariff Escalation; Technology; and Welfare. PROFIT. The net earnings accruing from the successful production or sale of goods and services: that is, the residual remaining to the entrepreneur after all payments for capital (interest), land (rent), labor (including management costs, salaries and wages), raw materials, taxes and depreciation. If the business fares poorly, profits may be negative, in which case they become losses. See also Entrepreneur; Management; Market; Production; and Risk. PROGRESSIVE TARIFF. See Tariff Escalation. PROMISSORY NOTES. See Commercial Paper. PROPERTY. An asset whose ownership gives the right to present or future material benefits, as protected by law.The term property refers not only to the possession of material goods, such as land, buildings and production facilities, but also to less tangible assets, such as manufacturing processes, design and brand names. See also Copyright; Intellectual Property; Patent; Production; Security; Trademark; and World Intellectual Property Organization. PROTECTION. Government measures -- including tariff and non-tariff barriers -- that raise the cost of imported goods or otherwise restrict their entry into a market, and thus strengthen the competitive position of domestic goods. See also Competitive; Import Relief; Infant Industry Argument; Market; Monopoly; Non-Tariff Barriers; Peril Point; Protectionism; Quantitative Restrictions; Safeguards; Tariff; and Tariff Escalation. PROTECTIONISM. The deliberate use or encouragement of restrictions on imports to enable relatively inefficient domestic producers to compete successfully with foreign producers. See also Competitive; Effective Tariff Rate; Imports; Infant Industry Argument; Liberal; Managed Trade; Mercantilism; Non-Tariff Barriers; Orderly Marketing Agreements; Protection; Safeguards; Tariff; and Voluntary Restraint Agreements. PROTOCOL OF ACCESSION. The legal document that records the obligations agreed to as a consequence of accession to an international accord or organization. See also Accession; Concession; and State Trading Nations. PROTOCOL OF PROVISIONAL APPLICATION (PPA). The agreement among the original GATT Contracting Parties to exempt from GATT provisions trade measures established by domestic legislation in force at the time of acceptance of the GATT. The protocol was intended to be temporary, pending implementation of the Havana Charter or definitive acceptance of GATT provisions by the Contracting Parties, but it has remained in effect, and countries that signed it in 1947 continue to invoke it to defend certain practices that are otherwise inconsistent with their GATT obligations. Countries that acceded to the GATT after 1947 have similar provisions incorporated in their protocols of accession. See also Accession; Contracting Party; Discrimination; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; Grandfather Clause; Protocol of Accession; and Residual Restrictions. PROVISIONAL ACCESSION. See Accession. PUBLIC LAW 480 (Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954). Provides for the disposition of U.S. farm products outside the United States. Title I spells out conditions under which such products can be sold to developing countries for their own currencies and the purposes for which the proceeds of such sales can be used in the purchasing country. Title II authorizes the transfer of U.S. farm products to developing countries for economic development purposes. Title III permits the donation of surplus products through U.S. voluntary agencies that carry out relief operations in other countries. Title IV provides for agreements between the U.S. government and other governments and private organizations purchasing surplus U.S. farm products. See also Section 22; and Surplus. PUBLIC SECTOR. The part of a national economy accounted for by government expenditures and state-owned or state-controlled enterprises. See also Non-Market Economy; Private Sector; and State Trading Nations. PUDD. See Potential Uncollected Dumping Duty. PUNTA DEL ESTE MINISTERIAL. The Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations was launched in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in September 1986 at a ministerial meeting that produced the Punta del Este Declaration. The declaration included the objectives and agenda for the negotiations, and was the result of consultations that began in 1985. See also Uruguay Round. PURCHASING POWER. The ability of consumers to purchase goods and services, based on their possession of money and their recourse to credit. Aggregate purchasing power within a market or a national economy reflects total disposable income after taxes, and hence the level of employment. See also Credit; Demand; Inflation; Money; and Price Elasticity of Demand. PURE RISK. See Risk.