Lucia Scripcari

213071715
Political Science and International Relations;
Law

Has the GATT/WTO been successful in regulating RTAs? Legal,

political and economical perspectives.
Abstract
One of the major aspects of international trading relations during the

post-war period has been the development of regional trade grouping or

blocs, primarily in the form of customs unions.According to WTO official

data, as of 1st July 2016, some 635 notifications of RTAs (counting goods,

services and accessions separately) had been received by the GATT/WTO.

Of these, 435 notifications were made under Article XXIV of the GATT.

The question of customs unions (CUs) and free trade areas (FTAs),

both permitted under GATT Article XXIV, has long been one of a very

important and controversial research topic. In this paper I sought to

analyze the interaction between regionalism and multilateralism within the

framework of Art. XXIV of the GATT/WTO.

First I will examine one of the examples of how the WTO Appelate

body has been successful in regulating unfair restrictions imposed by one

WTO member to another prior to its accession to a customs union.

Secondly, I will discuss several approaches that examine whether regional

agreements estimulate traden or whether they are diverting it. Finally, I

will analyze the impact of regional trade agreements from the theoretical

perspective. In this paper I will examine to what extent do the GATT

provisions ensure this goal by permitting an exception to non-

discrimination principle to states that form RTAs.

Moreover, it is worth examining whether measures adopted by the

customs union are trade creating or trade diverting.

Despite allowing the creation of regional integration like

formations of a customs union, the WTO had designed the mechanisms of

dispute settlement and granted the right of judicial proceeding to states

whose rights granted in the GATT agreement has been vioalated. The

question to be raised is how effective these mechanisms are in dealing

with similar issues and what can be done to restructure them towards a

more efficient level.

I will analyse whether regional agreements pave the way to trade

liberalization as many scholars argue or if they are actually blocking global

trade. Will regionalism lead to nondiscriminatory global free trade through

the expansion of the regional blocs or will it fragment the world economy?

Keywords: RTA, Custom Unions, Turkey vs India Arbitration case, WTO,

Dispute-settlement body, trade diversion vs trade creation, regionalism,
multilateralism, free trade, nondiscriminatory policy.

References:
Jagdish Bhagwati, Regionalism and Multilateralism: An Overview, in
Jaime de Melo and Arvind Panagariya, eds., New Dimensions in Regional
Integration (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 2829

Peter Hilpold, Regional Integration According to Article XXIV GATT-

Between Politics and Law pp

Baldwin, R., P. Haaparanta and J. Kiander (eds.), Cambridge University

Press: 1995. Published: Expanding European Regionalism: The EU's New
Members Pag.18

Theodore H. Cohn. Global Political Economy. (Sixth edition) Longman

Pearson, 2013
Regionalism and Global Trade Regime, pp.234

Jacob Viner The customs union issue Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace, 1950

DECISION No 1/95 OF THE EC-TURKEY ASSOCIATION COUNCIL of 22 December

1995 on implementing the final phase of the Customs Union (96/142/EC)
Retrieved from:
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2003/december/tradoc_115267.pdf

TURKEY RESTRICTIONS ON IMPORTS OFTEXTILE AND CLOTHING PRODUCTS,

Report of the Panel
Retrived from: http://www.globefield.com/itr-cases-t.htm

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, Article XI

Retrieved from
https://www.wto.org/ENGLISH/res_e/booksp_e/analytic_index_e/gatt1994_05_e.ht
m#article13

The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, Article 2 Retrieved from

https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/16-tex_e.htm

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, Article XIII

https://www.wto.org/ENGLISH/res_e/booksp_e/analytic_index_e/gatt1994_05_e.htm#article
13

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, Article XXIV

https://www.wto.org/ENGLISH/res_e/booksp_e/analytic_index_e/gatt1994_09_e.htm#article
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