See also:
> The Rules Negotiations

News  back to top

Introduction  back to top

Scope of RTAs

> See also: Regionalism — friends or rivals?
Explanation from “Understanding the WTO”, the introduction to the WTO.

The mandate  back to top

The WTO’s rules on regional trade agreements

A brief explanation

Text of GATT Art XXIV, Ad Art XXIV and its updates, including the 1994 “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

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

Text of the 2006 General Council Decision on the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements

Facts and figures  back to top

As of 8 January 2015, some 604 notifications of RTAs (counting goods, services and accessions separately) had been received by the GATT/WTO. Of these, 422 notifications were made under Article XXIV of the GATT 1947 or GATT 1994; 39 under the Enabling Clause; and 143 under Article V of the GATS. Of these 604 RTAs, 398 were in force.

The overall number of RTAs in force has been increasingly steadily, a trend likely to be strengthened by the many RTAs currently under negotiations. Of these RTAs, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and partial scope agreements account for 90%, while customs unions account for 10%.

For up-to-date information on WTO figures on RTAs currently in force, please consult the summary tables contained in the RTA Database.

These WTO figures correspond to 446 physical RTAs (counting goods, services and accessions together), of which 259 are currently in force.

• RTA Database
  Interactive access to the most up-to-date Information on Regional Trade Agreements notified to the GATT/WTO.
   
• How many regional trade agreements have been notified to the GATT or the WTO?
   
• Maps of RTAs
  > By country/territory
  > By plurilateral RTA

> See also Transparency Mechanism communications (early announcements of RTAs, notifications of changes, etc.)

Work on regional trade agreements in the WTO, and official documents  back to top

Work on this subject is handled by the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, which reports to the Goods Council.

The WTO’s Committee on Regional Trade Agreements

Special events

• WTO Seminar on Cross-Cutting Issues in Regional Trade Agreements — 25 September 2014
• Conference on “Multilateralising Regionalism” — 10-12 September 2007
• Seminar on Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO — 14 November 2003
• Seminar on regionalism and the WTO — 26th April 2002

Analysis and publications  back to top

• WTO Staff Working Paper: Trade Facilitation Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements — Traits and Trends

• WTO Staff Working Paper: Mapping of Safeguard Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements

• WTO Staff Working Paper: Mapping of Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in Regional Trade Agreements — Innovative or Variations on a Theme?

• WTO Staff Working Paper: Preferential rules of origin In regional trade agreements

• WTO Staff Working Paper: Antidumping regional regimes and the multilateral trading system: do regional antidumping regimes make a difference?
    
• WTO Staff Working Paper: Intellectual property provisions in regional trade agreements
    
• WTO Staff Working Paper: Market access provisions on trade in goods in regional trade agreements
    
• WTO Staff Working Paper: Services rules in regional trade agreements — How diverse and how creative as compared to the GATS multilateral rules?
  
  
• World Trade Report 2011: The WTO and preferential trade agreements: From co-existence to coherence
    
  
• Preferential Trade Agreement Policies for Development: A Handbook (The World Bank)
    
• Multilateralizing Regionalism: Challenges for the Global Trading System (February 2009)
    
• WTO Discussion Paper N° 12: The Changing Landscape of Regional Trade Agreements — Update 2006
   
• WTO Discussion Paper N° 8: The Changing Landscape of Regional Trade Agreements
    
• WTO Staff Working Paper: Services liberalization in the new generation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs): How much further than the GATS?

Other Resources / Databases of interest   back to top

• I-TIP-Services Portal A set of linked databases that provides information on Members' commitments under the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), services commitments in regional trade agreements (RTA), applied measures in services, and services statistics.
    
• Dataset of services commitments in RTAs
    
• World Customs Organization Database of Preferential Agreements and related Rules of Origin

Contact Point:  back to top

Regional Trade Agreements Section
rta@wto.org
+41 (0)22 7396430
+41 (0)22 739 5774

External links