The Agreement on Agriculture entered into force under the Marrakesh Agreement on 1 January 1995. It deals only with trade in agricultural products although the commitments on agricultural products are to be found in each Member State’s schedule of concessions which it attached to the GATT 1994. To understand each Member State’s commitments on agricultural products, both the Agreement on Agriculture and the Member State’s schedule of commitments must be consulted. Agricultural products are defined in Annex 1 to the Agreement on Agriculture. It is defined with reference to the Harmonised System, which is the standardised numerical method of classifying traded products administered by the World Customs Organisation. It covers Chapters 1 to 24 of the Harmonised System as well as limited parts of Chapters 29 to 53. Agricultural products include: • live animal and animal products • vegetables and vegetable products • fruits and fruit products • fats and oils • prepared foodstuff, beverages, wines, spirits and vinegar, tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes, and • raw hides, skins, silk, wool, cotton, flax

This Practice Note introduces the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Import Licensing. It provides guidance on the general provisions that are applicable to all import licensing procedures as well as the specific provisions relevant to automatic and non-automatic import licensing procedures. It further provides guidance on the notification obligation to the WTO Committee on Import Licensing. Introduction Import licensing can adversely affect trade in goods. This was already recognised under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947. Article VIII of GATT 1947 dealt in broad terms with import licensing as follows: • Member States recognised the need to minimise the incidence of import and export formalities, and for decreasing and simplifying import and export documentation requirements • Member States agreed to review the operations of their laws and regulations in light of Article VIII if so requested by another Member State, and • Member States were prohibited from imposing substantial penalties for minor breaches of customs regulation or procedural requirements During the Tokyo Round of negotiations, Member States

This Practice Note provides practical guidance on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Preshipment Inspections. It contains practical guidance on the obligations that governments utilising preshipment inspections must comply with such as non-discrimination, transparency, protection of confidential business information and the avoidance of unreasonable delays. Introduction Preshipment inspection is usually concerned with activities relating to the verification of the quality, quantity and price of goods to be exported. Often private companies are contracted to perform preshipment inspections. The WTO Agreement on Preshipment Inspections recognises that preshipment inspections could be an impediment to trade. As such the Agreement on Preshipment Inspections subjects preshipment to some of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) principles and obligations. Scope of the Agreement on Preshipment Inspections Preshipment inspection activities include all activities relating to the verification of the: • quality • quantity • price, including currency exchange rate and financial terms, and • customs classification of the goods to be exported to a Member State which utilises preshipment inspection (User Member State). The

This Practice Note introduces the basic concepts of safeguard measures as contained in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Safeguards and Article XIX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1947 (GATT 1947). It covers the main aspects relevant to safeguard measures, such as what constitutes a safeguard measure, when a Member State has the right to apply safeguard measures, the content, form and duration of the safeguard measures, the domestic investigation procedure and maintenance of the same level of concessions and obligations toward affected Member States. Introduction to safeguard measures Member States have been empowered to apply safeguard measures to prevent or remedy serious injury to their domestic industries since the GATT 1947. Safeguard measures are not aimed at unfair trade practices, such as dumping or subsidies, rather it provides Member States with a safety value for fair trade. The safety value is intended to provide temporary relief to a Member State’s domestic industry by limiting imports. This affords Member States the opportunity to adjust to increased import competition.

This Practice Note introduces the basic concepts of subsidisation and countervailing measures as contained in the WTO’s Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement. It covers the main aspects relevant to subsidy matters, such as the determination of the like product, the domestic industry, what constitutes a subsidy, what is a prohibited subsidy, what is an actionable subsidy, the two different tracks to resolve subsidy issues, the affect that a subsidy must have to be actionable and the different countervailing duties that may be imposed. Introduction The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947 contained several provisions dealing with subsidies. Article VI deals with countervailing duties to counter the effect of a subsidy. Article XVI GATT provided for certain disciplines on domestic subsidies as well as export subsidies. The disciplines as contained in the GATT 1947 were weak. This led to the negotiation and conclusion of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement) which came into force with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 1 January 1995. The

This Practice Note provides an overview of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. It explains that the scope of the agreement covers technical regulations, standard and conformity assessment procedures. It provides an overview of the conditions under which Member States may make use of technical barriers as well as the main disciplines and principles. Introduction to the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade Member States have recognised that as tariffs are reduced, it is likely that non-tariff barriers will present another barrier to free trade. This has been the case under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947 when in 1979 during the Tokyo Round of negotiations the Member States agreed to the Standards Code. As with other trade topics, the negotiations continued and eventually culminated in the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). The TBT Agreement aims to ensure that technical regulations and standards and conformity assessment procedures do not create unnecessary barriers to trade. At the same time, the TBT Agreement allows Member

This Practice Note provides practical guidance on the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation. It provides practical guidance on the obligations that Member States adopted as well as the flexibility afforded to developing and least developed Member States in implementing the obligations of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation. Introduction The Agreement on Trade Facilitation is the first multilateral agreement to have been concluded since the establishment of the WTO on 1 January 1995. It is a first in another respect. This is because it is the first WTO agreement that allows developing and least developed Member States to determine when they will have the capacity to implement individual provisions of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation. The Agreement on Trade Facilitation aims to expedite the movement, release and clearance of goods—including goods in transit. It entered into force on 22 February 2017 after two-thirds of the Member States completed their domestic ratification processes. Obligations The obligations that Member States assume under the Agreement on Trade Facilitation are contained in section

Introduction to the Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures The Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (the TRIMs Agreement) deals with investment measures related to trade in goods. It was first considered to include provisions on foreign investment under the Havana Charter that was to establish the International Trade Organization in 1948. This was never ratified, and no such provision saw the light of day under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947. During the Uruguay Round, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements were negotiated, a GATT Panel considered the interaction between investment and trade in goods. In the dispute, Canada required foreign investors to give undertakings to purchase certain Canadian products (local content requirements) and to export a certain percentage of their output. These undertakings were required as conditions for approval of the foreigners’ investments. The Panel concluded that the requirement to purchase certain Canadian products were inconsistent with the National Treatment principle of the GATT 1947. It did not find that the export performance requirement violated any GATT

This Practice Note provides a practical overview of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. It gives practical guidance on what constitutes sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, the scope of the SPS Agreement and the difference between the SPS and the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement. It provides guidance on the right to implement SPS measures as well as any limitations imposed on Member States when adopting SPS measures. It details the risk assessment that Member States must undertake prior to adopting an SPS measure. It also provides guidance on recognition of equivalence of SPS measures between Member States and the transparency provisions related to SPS measures. Introduction to the SPS Agreement The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) entered into force with the establishment of the World Trade Organization on 1 January 1995. The SPS Agreement sets out measures for the protection of human and animal life or health (so-called sanitary measures) and measure for protection of

What is the legal basis of key industry codes in the GB electricity market? The primary piece of legislation governing the electricity industry in mainland Great Britain (GB) is the Electricity Act 1989 (EA 1989) which established the structure of the market that we see today. There have been numerous amendments to the EA 1989 since it came into force, due to various policy developments from the UK government and, prior to Brexit, emanating from the EU, as incorporated into the consolidated version of the EA 1989 linked in this Practice Note. The EA 1989 establishes a regulatory regime which follows the standard model adopted by other regulated utility industries in GB, namely that it is prohibited to undertake certain activities relating to, in this case, electricity unless authorised to do so. For further detail on the regulatory regime for the GB electricity market, see Practice Note: An Introduction to Electricity Licensing in Great Britain. Authorisation in this case means either

Convention rights The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) came into force in October 2000 and aims to give effect to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (the Convention rights). The ECHR is an international binding treaty reflecting the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. The UK ratified the ECHR in 1951, but it only became binding in UK law with the introduction of HRA 1998. In particular, HRA 1998 provides: • a remedy in the UK courts for breach of a Convention right without the need for the claimant party to seek redress in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg • that it is unlawful for a public authority (including a court or tribunal) to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right • that primary legislation and subordinate legislation must be interpreted in a way which is compatible with the Convention rights • the UK courts with the power to make a declaration of 'incompatibility',

What are rules of origin? Rules of origin are the criteria used to determine in which Member State’s territory a product originates from. The criteria vary greatly from Member State to Member State and from product to product. Typically, Member States would apply rules of origin of general application as well as product specific rules of origin. Usually the rules of origin provide for two methods in terms of which a product may be deemed to originate in the territory of a Member States. The first method is where a product has been wholly obtained in the territory of a Member State. This is typically the case where a product has been wholly obtained or produced in the Member State’s territory without using material from any other Member State. Such products usually are also not allowed to have been modified in another Member State’s territory. The second method is where a product has not been wholly obtained in a Member State’s territory. In this case, the rules of origin provide that a product may