WTO Launches New Regional Trade Agreements Database

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

19 January 2009

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has launched a new database on regional trade agreements (RTAs). This contains all the relevant documentation received by the WTO following notification by a WTO member that an RTA has been established.

The database, which is one of the requirements of the General Council's Transparency Decision on RTAs, contains all the notifications, links to the content of the relevant RTAs, legal provisions and information on the WTO’s assessments of the RTAs.

The database also contains more detailed information about the RTAs for which the WTO has prepared a 'factual presentation' or a 'factual abstract'. In these cases the following information is provided:

• The timetable agreed in the RTA for the reduction of tariffs as well as data on trade in goods and services for the relevant countries at the time that the RTA enters into force (this only applies to RTAs where the WTO has prepared a factual presentation).
• A list of key provisions contained in the RTAs as well as links to brief descriptions of these provisions in the factual presentation or factual abstract prepared by the WTO.

The database can be searched by country, region, legal provision, date of notification or entry into force of the RTA. Summary tables of all RTAs currently in force, containing various types of information, can be easily exported by users of the database. The database can be accessed from the WTO’s website.

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