Negotiating Group on Rules - Submission on Regional Trade Agreements by Australia
- Australia
- 2006/04/24
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World Trade
Organization TN/RL/W/15
9 July 2002 (02-3820) Negotiating Group on Rules Original: English
submission ON REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
BY AUSTRALIA
The following communication, dated 8 July 2002, has been received from the Permanent Mission of Australia.
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This communication is a contribution to the elaboration of possible solutions to the problem of interpreting the meaning of "substantially all the trade", a key term in the WTO rules applying to customs unions and free-trade areas. Its clarification would represent an important step in the WTO's consideration of the rules on regionalism in the Doha Round.
Background
1. An agreed understanding of the meaning of "substantially all the trade" has so far eluded the WTO Membership. The absence of such an understanding is one of the main reasons why most GATT working parties established to examine regional trade agreements, and more recently the Committee on Regional T