The agreements on technical barriers to trade, subsidies and countervailing measures, anti-dumping measures, import licensing and customs valuation are more detailed versions of the agreements concluded in the tokyo Round on these issues, while the new agreements concern the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, safeguard measures, pre-shipment inspections and rules of origin. The Agreement on Rules of Origin contains the obligation to agree on guidelines for their use within three years. The Uruguay Round negotiations should have been concluded at a ministerial meeting in Brussels in 1990, but this meeting ended in failure; Negotiations took place in Geneva at the level of representatives of the Geneva GATT and, at the end of 1991, the then Director-General of GATT and Chairman of the Trade Negotiations Committee, Mr. Arthur Dunkel, presented a draft text of the draft Final Act (FTA), consisting mainly of agreed texts negotiated in various fields under the aegis of a small group of negotiators. but with the „text” provided by Dunkel in some areas where there was no agreement. The agreements for the WTO`s two largest areas, goods and services, have a three-part framework: despite the difficulties, ministers agreed on a package of measures with initial results at the Montreal meeting. These included certain concessions on market access for tropical products in support of developing countries, as well as a simplified dispute settlement system and the Trade Policy Review Mechanism, which provided for the first comprehensive, systematic and regular reviews of the national trade policies and practices of GATT members. The round was to end with a further meeting of ministers in Brussels in December 1990. However, they did not agree on how agricultural trade should be reformed and decided to extend the talks. The Uruguay Round has entered its darkest phase. The Doha Development Round was the next trade round, which began in 2001 and was still unresolved after missing its official 2005 deadline. [3] A number of agreements on non-tariff measures provide for exemptions or transitional periods for commitments and technical assistance.
For example, developing countries are not expected to use international standards that are not adapted to their circumstances as the basis for their technical regulations or standards. With regard to export subsidies for manufactured goods, least developed and low-income developing countries are not subject to the export subsidy ban applicable to WTO Members, and other developing countries have a transitional period of at least eight years to allow the expiry of such measures (the prohibition of which is confirmed for developed countries with immediate effect) and may apply for a new extension. With regard to customs valuation, developing countries that have not signed the Tokyo Round Agreement may postpone the application of the provisions for five years and request a further extension. „Very soon, the 1. In January 2000, the transition period for the implementation of almost all the provisions of the WTO Agreements in favour of developing countries ends — the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will have another five years — and the full range of effects will be felt. In a preface to the CD-ROM written in September last year, SUNS Editor-in-Chief Chakravarthi Raghavan noted that the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement on a World Trade Organization, with its annexed agreements, arrangements and decisions covering trade in goods, intellectual property rights and services, as well as a dispute settlement system and a trade policy review mechanism for the regular review of the of the economic policies of the Länder entered into force on 1 January 1995. Sometimes he seemed doomed to failure. But in the end, the Uruguay Round resulted in the biggest reform of the global trading system since the creation of GATT at the end of World War II. And yet, despite its difficult progress, the Uruguay Round has seen some initial results. In just two years, participants agreed on a package of measures to reduce import duties on tropical products exported mainly by developing countries. They also revised the dispute settlement rules, with some measures being implemented on the ground. And they called for regular reporting on the trade policies of GATT members, a measure deemed important to make trade regulations transparent around the world.
The GATT Member States launched the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in September 1986. It covered almost all trade policy issues. The Uruguay Round is described as the biggest trade negotiation of all time. .