Trade laws

WTO Trade Co-operations Abbreviations

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The WTO is a place where member governments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. The first step is to talk. The WTO was born out of negotiations, and everything the WTO does is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the WTO’s current work comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the “Doha Development Agenda” launched in 2001.

ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (Lomé Convention and Cotonu Agreement)
AD, A-D Anti-dumping measures
AFTA ASEAN Free Trade Area
AMS Aggregate measurement of support (agriculture)
APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
ATC Agreement on Textiles and Clothing
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CCC (former) Customs Co-operation Council (now WCO)
CER [Australia New Zealand] Closer Economic Relations [Trade Agreement] (also ANCERTA)
COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
CTD Committee on Trade and Development
CTE Committee on Trade and Environment
CVD Countervailing duty (subsidies)
DDA Doha Development Agenda
DSB Dispute Settlement Body
DSU Dispute Settlement Understanding
EC European Communities
EFTA European Free Trade Association
EU European Union
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GSP Generalized System of Preferences
HS Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System
ICITO Interim Commission for the International Trade Organization
ILO International Labour Organization
IMF International Monetary Fund
ITC International Trade Centre
ITO International Trade Organization
MEA Multilateral environmental agreement
MERCOSUR Southern Common Market
MFA Multifibre Arrangement (replaced by ATC)
MFN Most-favoured-nation
MTN Multilateral trade negotiations
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
PSE Producer subsidy equivalent (agriculture)
PSI Pre-shipment inspection
S&D, SDT Special and differential treatment (for developing countries)
SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
SDR Special Drawing Rights (IMF)
SELA Latin American Economic System
SPS Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
TBT Technical barriers to trade
TMB Textiles Monitoring Body
TNC Trade Negotiations Committee
TPRB Trade Policy Review Body
TPRM Trade Policy Review Mechanism
TRIMs Trade-related investment measures
TRIPS Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights
UN United Nations
UNCTAD UN Conference on Trade and Development
UNDP UN Development Programme
UNEP UN Environment Programme
UPOV International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
UR Uruguay Round
VER Voluntary export restraint
VRA Voluntary restraint agreement
WCO World Customs Organization
WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization
WTO World Trade Organization

 

The basic structure of the WTO agreements: how the six main areas fit together — the umbrella WTO Agreement, goods, services, intellectual property, disputes and trade policy reviews.

Umbrella

AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING WTO

Goods

Services

Intellectual property

Basic principles

GATT

GATS

TRIPS

Additional details

Other goods agreements and annexes

Services annexes

Market access commitments

Countries’ schedules of commitments

Countries’ schedules of commitments(and MFN exemptions)

Dispute settlement

DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

Transparency

TRADE POLICY REVIEWS

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