World Trade Organization WT/WGTI/W/137 26 August 2002 (02-4564) Working Group on the Relationship between Trade and Investment EXCEPTIONS AND BALANCE-OF-PAYMENTS SAFEGUARDS Note by the Secretariat executive summary This Note reviews the way in which general, security and regional integration exceptions and balance-of-payments safeguard provisions are treated in the GATT, the GATS, and in the international investment agreements (IIAs). These constitute one of the topics that are to be clarified by the Working Group under Paragraph 22 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, which also requires Members to take into account, in any multilateral framework on investment, exceptions for governments to regulate in the public interest and to participate in regional trade and economic integration agreements. General and security exceptions to GATT and GATS rules provide room for WTO Members to regulate in the public interest in ways that would othe