Regional trade agreements

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News 

  

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Introduction

• Brief explanation

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Facts and figures

As of 1 December 2022, 355 RTAs were in force. These correspond to 582 notifications from WTO members, counting goods, services and accessions separately.

• How many regional trade agreements have been notified to the GATT or the WTO?
• Recent RTA developments (July 2022 – December 2022)
• RTA Database
  Access the most up-to-date information on RTAs notified to the GATT/WTO.
• Map of RTAs by country/territory
  Select a country or territory on the map to see its participation in RTAs

  

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Committee on Regional Trade Agreements

The Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) considers individual regional agreements under the Transparency Mechanism for RTAs (see below). It is also mandated to hold discussions on the systemic implications of RTAs for the multilateral trading system, as was reaffirmed by WTO members at the 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in 2015. The CRTA's terms of reference can be found in WT/L/127. The current Chair is .

• Read more: The WTO’s Committee on Regional Trade Agreements

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Transparency Mechanism for RTAs

WTO members agreed in 2006 to implement a provisional mechanism to enhance the transparency of RTAs and understand their effects on the multilateral system. Under this process, members notify the WTO about their RTAs and these are discussed by the wider WTO membership on the basis of a factual presentation prepared by the WTO Secretariat.

At the 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in 2015, WTO members agreed to work towards the transformation of the provisional mechanism into a permanent mechanism without prejudice to questions related to notification requirements.

• Procedures to implement the Transparency Mechanism on RTAs
• Video: How to notify a new RTA to the WTO
• Video: How to notify changes to an existing RTA to the WTO

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Notifications of RTAs

WTO members are obliged to notify the RTAs in which they participate. All of the WTO's members have notified participation in one or more RTAs (some members are party to 20 or more). Notifications may also refer to the accession of new parties to an agreement that already exists, e.g. the notification of the accession of Croatia to the European Union.

For more detail on notifications of RTAs currently in force, consult the summary tables of the RTA Database http://rtais.wto.org/UI/publicsummarytable.aspx

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Evolution of RTAs, 1948-2022

The following chart shows all RTAs notified to the GATT/WTO (1948-2022), including inactive RTAs, by year of entry into force.

A series of interactive graphs, along with the underlying data, is available from the WTO RTA Database: http://rtais.wto.org/UI/Charts.aspx

 

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New developments in RTAs

Many WTO members continue to be involved in negotiations to create new RTAs. Like the agreements in force, most new negotiations are bilateral. However, a recent development has been negotiations and new agreements among several WTO members. This includes developments in:

• the Asia-Pacific Region, with the entry into force of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement (signed by 11 parties);
• Asia, with the signature of  the Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP) between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members and six other WTO members;
• Latin America, with the establishment of the Pacific Alliance between Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru; and
• Africa, with the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and negotiations for the Tripartite Agreement, linking parties to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

However, the vast majority of such new plurilateral agreements have not reduced the spaghetti bowl of RTAs given that they have not superseded existing bilateral agreements.

Negotiations on RTAs

Negotiations to clarify and improve WTO disciplines on RTAs fall under the work of the Negotiating Group on Rules, which reports to the Trade Negotiations Committee. The negotiations have been dormant for some time.

• Negotiations on RTAs

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WTO rules on regional trade agreements

The WTO’s rules on regional trade agreements:

• Text of GATT Art XXIV, Ad Art XXIV and its updates, including the1994 “Understanding”.
• Enabling Clause for developing countries.
  Text of the 1979 GATT decision allowing preferential trade in goods among developing countries.
• Text of GATS Article V
• Text of the 2006 General Council Decision on the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements
• Find decisions of WTO bodies concerning the regional trade agreements in the Analytical Index — Guide to WTO Law and Practice
• The Doha negotiating mandate
  Section on regional trade agreements in the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration