The Uruguay Round, one of the longest and most complex economic negotiations ever undertaken, was completed successfully in December 1993. Its results are embodied in nearly 30 legal agreements and a large number of supplementary decisions, as well as a large number of highly detailed separate undertakings in which each country specifies the levels of trade restrictions, which it promises not to exceed, for thousands of different products or services.
The joint agreements and decisions alone add up to well over 500 pages of printed text, and the individual undertakings, or schedules, bring the total volume of the results of the Uruguay Round to almost 300,000 pages. This formidable mass of paper embodies a total overhaul of the basic rules and institutions of world trade, and the birth of a new institution, the World Trade Organization.
With such a complex background, yet such a legal and practical significance, the purpose of this book is to make the results of the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations easier to understand. Many efforts have already been made to present an overall view of the results of the Uruguay Round and their significance. In general, however, reports on the Round have described the agreements only in broad terms, and often from a very specific viewpoint.
Those who wish to have a fuller and more precise view have largely been left to find their way, as best they can, through the legal texts. This book, more detailed and clear than anything written on the Uruguay Round so far, offers them a companion and a concise guide.
- The World Trade Organization
I. The Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization
III. Multilateral Review and Transparency
- The Results of the Uruguay Round for Goods
I. The Agreements
II. Liberalization of Tariffs and Non-Tariff Measures Affecting Trade in Industrial Products
III. Reductions in Import Barriers and Other Interventions Affecting Trade in Agricultural Products
IV. Trade and Income Effects of Liberalizing Trade in Goods
- The Results of the Uruguay Round for Services
I. The General Agreement on Trade in Services
II. Uruguay Round Commitments on Services
- The Results of the Uruguay Round on the Protection of Intellectual Property
I. General Provisions and Basic Principles
II. Standards
III. Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
IV. Dispute Settlement
V. Transitional Arrangements
VI. Other Provisions
- Developing Countries in the WTO System
Annex I. The Plurilateral Agreements
Annex II. Trade and Environment
Annex III. Update of Economic Assessments of the Uruguay Round
Annex IV. How the Legal Texts Correspond to Sections of this Book
References