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A Study on the Relationship between the WTO Legal System and Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) - With Special Reference to the Article XXIV of 「GATT 1994」 concerning the Requirements for Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) -

  • DONG-A LAW REVIEW
  • 2010, (48), pp.857-894
  • Publisher : The Institute for Legal Studies Dong-A University
  • Research Area : Social Science > Law

SHIM YOUNGGYOO 1

1동아대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Although a regional trade agreement (hereinafter referred to as “RTA”), a preferential trading agreement of which attributes are regionalism and preferential discrimination, is intrinsically a violation of the WTO legal system based on multilateral trading system and non-discrimination principle, establishment and operation of an RTA satisfying certain requirements are exceptionally permitted under the relevant WTO rules. Therefore, in order for the RTA to be legitimate, any WTO member state concluding it has to observe the principles and rules under the WTO legal system. In particular, the basic legal requirements for the exceptional permission of an RTA in the field of trade in goods are provided in the Article XXIV of 「GATT 1994」. The Article XXIV of 「GATT 1994」 stipulates external requirements for the RTA members as well as internal requirements for non-RTA members, and only the preferential RTA fulfilling all the requirements can be lawful under the provision. Accordingly, the Article XXIV is generally regarded as seeking the balance between the multilateralism and an RTA. However, the provision has caused some interpretative controversies because the requirements for permission of an RTA consist of ambiguous and obscure expressions and contents, such as the expressions of “substantially all the trade,” “not on the whole” and “within a reasonable length of time.” As a result, it is needed to define the meanings and contents of the provision more clearly in order for the proliferation of regional trading blocs through RTAs to be a reasonable legal basis which can substantially contribute to the policy goal of multilateral free trade. Based on the above recognition, this paper, starting with consideration on the concept and types of RTAs, reviewed and analyzed not only the requirements for permission of an RTA in the Article XXIV but also the interpretative problems and necessity of improving the provision.

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