Article 24 of GATT

Article 24 of GATT

Subject: International relations

Section: International Organisation

Context: India negotiating FTAs

Concept:

• Article 24 is a provision of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
• The GATT is a World Trade Organisation (WTO)agreement aimed at reducing tariffs and other barriers to trade in goods across the world.
• Ordinarily, under WTO rules, tariffs and other barriers applied to goods coming from other countries must be the same for all WTO members. This is known as the most-favoured nation principle.
• However, the GATT provides several means for members to negotiate agreements among themselves to reduce barriers selectively without having to apply the same benefits to all WTO members: one of these is Article 24.
• Its main purpose is to ensure that barriers are not raised to other WTO members because of these agreements. In principle, Article 24 also allows members to reach ‘interim’ agreements so they can offer preferential treatment prior to the implementation of a full agreement.

GATT:

• The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas.
• It was signed by 23 nations in Geneva on October 30th, 1947, and was applied on a provisional basis January 1st, 1948.
• It remained in effect until January 1st, 1995, when the World Trade Organization(WTO) was established after agreement by 123 nations in Marrakesh on April 15th, 1994, as part of the Uruguay Round
• The WTO is the successor to the GATT, and the original GATT text (GATT 1947) is still in effect under the WTO framework, subject to the modifications of GATT 1994.
• WTO:

The WTO’s creation on 1 January 1995 marked the biggest reform of international trade since the end of the Second World War. Whereas the GATT mainly dealt with trade in goods, the WTO and its agreements also cover trade in services and intellectual property. The birth of the WTO also created new procedures for the settlement of disputes.

Functions of WTO:

• Trade negotiations
• Implementation and monitoring
• Dispute settlement
• Building trade capacity
• Outreach

In 2020, the WTO marked its 25th anniversary.