International Trade Law Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from International Trade Law lectures.

Reciprocal Tariffs

Tariffs imposed by a country to match tariffs that other countries impose on its products, aiming for a level playing field.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

An organization that promotes free trade by reducing tariffs and trade barriers among member countries.

Retaliatory Tariffs

Counter trade measures imposed by a country in response to tariffs or other trade restrictions imposed by another country.

Trade War

A situation where trade policies escalate into a series of retaliatory measures, disrupting global trade and economic relations.

Global Supply Chains

Networks involved in the production and distribution of goods and services across different countries.

Inflation

The rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.

Geopolitical Strategy

The use of trade policies as tools to achieve strategic geopolitical objectives.

Global Trade Rules

The global system of trade rules operated by the WTO, aimed at using trade to improve living standards and create jobs.

Dispute Settlement Process

The WTO's process for resolving trade disagreements among member countries, focusing on interpreting agreements and ensuring policy conformity.

Multilateral Trading System

The collection of trade agreements negotiated and signed by a majority of the world’s trading economies and ratified in their parliaments that serve as the legal foundation for global trade.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

The international organization that replaced the GATT in 1995 to supervise and liberalize international trade.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

The international agreement established in 1947 that aimed to reduce tariffs and trade barriers.

Uruguay Round

A series of trade negotiations conducted under the GATT to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, leading to the creation of the WTO.

Agreement on Trade Facilitation

A WTO agreement designed to reduce border delays by simplifying customs procedures and reducing red tape.

WTO Agreements

An agreement to ensure that members operate a non-discriminatory trading system that protects both their rights and obligations.

Non-Discriminatory Trading System

The principle that each WTO member guarantees that its exports will be treated fairly and consistently in other members’ markets.

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

The agreement extending the principles of open trade beyond goods to include banks, insurance firms, and telecommunications companies.

Intellectual Property Agreement (TRIPS)

An agreement setting rules for trade in ideas and creativity, specifying how intellectual property should be protected when trade is involved.

Trade Policy Review Mechanism

The WTO mechanism to improve transparency by reviewing and assessing members' trade policies.

WTO Objective

The objective is to ensure trade flows as smoothly and predictably as possible to raise people's living standards.

Ministerial Conference

The WTO's top-level decision-making body, which meets every two years.

WTO Location

Geneva, Switzerland

WTO Director General

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Most-Favored-Nation (MFN)

A principle under WTO agreements where countries must not discriminate between their trading partners.

MFN Exceptions

Exceptions to this non-discrimination principle include Free Trade Agreements, special access for developing countries, trade remedies, and in some cases, services.

National Treatment (NT)

When imported and locally-produced goods should be treated equally.

Freer Trade

Lowering tariff and non-tariff trade barriers to encourage international trade.

Predictability

Providing businesses with a clear view of future opportunities by promising not to raise trade barriers.

Fair Competition

Establishing rules for open, fair, and undistorted trade competition.

Development and Economic Reform

Facilitating programs that encourage developing countries' market economies and provide adjustment periods for WTO provisions.

WTO’s creation on 1 January 1995

The biggest reform of international trade since after the Second World War.

Uruguay Round

The eight rounds of multilateral trade negotiations conducted under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a precursor to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Market access for goods

Tariff and non-tariff measures agreed by members for the entry of specific goods into their markets, which are set out in each member's schedules of concessions on goods.

bulkiest results of Uruguay Round

The 22,500 pages listing individual countries’ commitments on specific categories of goods and services.

bound tariffs

committed and difficult to increase

Agriculture Agreement

Objective was to reform trade in the agricultural sector and to make policies more “market-oriented”.

What is trade distortion?

Key issue. Trade is distorted if prices are higher or lower than normal, and if quantities produced, bought, and sold are also higher or lower than normal — i.e. than the levels that would usually exist in a competitive market.

Food security

A

Tariff Quota

This is what a tariff-quota might look like Tariff rate Quota limit 10% In quota Charged 10% 1,000 tons Import quantity Tariff quotas are also called tariff- rate quotas . Under the Uruguay Round agreement, the 1,000 tons would be based on actual imports in the base period or an agreed minimum access formula.

Agriculture Domestic support

The main complaint about policies which support domestic prices, or subsidize production in some other way, is that they encourage over- production.

Standards and safety

Article 20 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) allows governments to act on trade (i.e., regulate) to protect human, animal or plant life or health, provided they do not discriminate or use this as disguised protectionism.

Food, animal and plant products: how safe is safe?

How does a country ensure that its consumers are being supplied with food that is safe to eat — “safe” by the standards the country consider appropriate?

Food, animal and plant products: (SPS Agreement)

The SPS Agreement allows countries to set their own standards.

Technical regulations and standards

TBTs can be in the form of regulations, standards, or conformity assessment procedures imposed by governments.

back in the mainstream. Textiles,

From 1974 until the end of the Uruguay Round, the trade was governed by the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA).

Trade in Services (GATS)

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is the first and only set of multilateral rules governing international trade in services.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)

The WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), negotiated during the 1986-94 Uruguay Round, introduced intellectual property rules into the multilateral trading system for the first time.

Intellectual Property

Government grant creators the right to prevent others from using their inventions, designs or other creations — and to use that right to negotiate payment in return for others using them.

WTO’s TRIPS Agreement

The WTO’s TRIPS Agreement is an attempt to narrow the gaps in the way these rights are protected and enforced around the world, and to bring them under common international rules.

Anti-dumping actions

If a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market, it is said to be dumping the product.

Anti-dumping Actions must show and explain

Detailed procedures are set out on how anti-dumping cases are to be initiated, how the investigations are to be conducted, and the conditions for ensuring that all interested parties are given an opportunity to present evidence.

Subsidies and countervailing measures

This WTO agreement does two things: it disciplines the use of subsidies, and it regulates the actions countries can take to counter the effects of subsidies.

Safeguards: emergency protection from imports

A WTO member may restrict imports of a product temporarily (take “safeguard” actions), if its domestic industry is injured or threatened with injury caused by a surge in imports. The injury must be “serious”.

Non-tariff barriers (NTB)

several WTO agreements deal with various bureaucratic or legal issues that could involve barriers to trade.

Rules of origin

“Rules of origin” are the criteria used to define where a product was made. They are an essential part of trade rules because several policies discriminate between exporting countries: quotas, preferential tariffs, anti-dumping actions, countervailing duty (charged to counter export subsidies), and more.

Plurilateral Agreements

For the most part, all WTO members subscribe to all WTO agreements.

Trade Policy Review

Individuals and companies involved in trade must know as much as possible about the conditions of trade. It is therefore fundamentally important that regulations and policies are transparent.

WTO Dispute Settlement

Disputes in the WTO are essentially about broken promises. WTO members have agreed that if they believe fellow- members are violating trade rules, they will use the multilateral system of settling disputes instead of acting unilaterally.