WTO Members agreed at Doha to initiate negotiations aimed at clarifying and improving disciplines and procedures under the existing WTO provisions applying to regional trade agreements, taking into account developmental aspects. These negotiations are scheduled for completion by 1 January 2005.

> Original mandate: GATT Article XXIV (opens in pop-up window)
> The Doha mandate (opens in pop-up window)
> The Doha mandate explained

Negotiations are taking place within the Negotiating Group on Rules (NGR) which reports to the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC). The issue-identification phase of the negotiations on RTAs is nearly complete. The negotiating group is pursuing a two-track approach: identifying issues for negotiation in formal meetings and; holding open-ended informal consultations on more procedural issues related to transparency of RTAs.

  
  
Background     > back to top

• For information on the issues currently under discussion, see the Secretariat's study entitled Compendium of Issues related to Regional Trade Agreements TN/RL/W/8/Rev.1 (in MS Word 31 pages; 210 KB).

2006 General Council Decision on the Transparency Mechanism for RTAs     > back to top

• News item
• The decision

The Negotiating Group’s work and official documents