Lisbon Agreement — Treaty, administered by WIPO, for the protection of geographical indications and their international registration.
Madrid Agreement — Treaty, administered by WIPO, for the repression of false or deceptive indications of source on goods.
mailbox — Refers to the requirement of the TRIPS Agreement applying to WTO members which do not yet provide product patent protection for pharmaceuticals and for agricultural chemicals. Since 1 January 1995, when the WTO agreements entered into force, these countries have to establish a means by which applications of patents for these products can be filed. (An additional requirement says they must also put in place a system for granting “exclusive marketing rights” for the products whose patent applications have been filed.)
parallel imports — When a product made legally (i.e. not pirated) abroad is imported without the permission of the intellectual property right-holder (e.g. the trademark or patent owner). Some countries allow this, others do not.
Paris Convention — Treaty, administered by WIPO, for the protection of industrial intellectual property, i.e. patents, utility models, industrial designs, etc.
piracy — Unauthorized copying of materials protected by intellectual property rights (such as copyright, trademarks, patents, geographical indications, etc) for commercial purposes and unauthorized commercial dealing in copied materials.
Rome Convention — Treaty, administered by WIPO, UNESCO and ILO, for the protection of the works of performers, broadcasting organizations and producers of phonograms.
TRIPS — Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
UPOV — International union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
Washington Treaty — Treaty for the protection of intellectual property in respect of lay-out designs of integrated circuits.
WIPO — World Intellectual Property Organization.
Investment
export-performance measure — Requirement that a certain quantity of production must be exported.
FDI — Foreign direct investment.
local-content measure — Requirement that the investor purchase a certain amount of local materials for incorporation in the investor’s product.
product-mandating — Requirement that the investor export to certain countries or region.
trade-balancing measure — Requirement that the investor use earnings from exports to pay for imports.
TRIMS — Trade-related investment measures.
Dispute settlement
Appellate Body — An independent seven-person body that, upon request by one or more parties to the dispute, reviews findings in panel reports.
automaticity — The “automatic” chronological progression for settling trade disputes in regard to panel establishment, terms of reference, composition and adoption procedures.
DSB — Dispute Settlement Body — when the WTO General Council meets to settle trade disputes.
DSU — The Uruguay Round Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes.
nullification and impairment — Damage to a country’s benefits and expectations from its WTO membership through another country’s change in its trade regime or failure to carry out its WTO
obligations.
panel — Consisting of three experts, this independent body is established by the DSB to examine and issue recommendations on a particular dispute in the light of WTO provisions.
Services
accounting rate — In telecoms, the charge made by one country’s telephone network operator for calls originating in another country.
commercial presence — Having an office, branch, or subsidiary in a foreign country.
GATS — The WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services.
general obligations — Obligations which should be applied to all services sector at the entry into force of the agreement.
Initial commitments — Trade liberalizing commitments in services which members are prepared to make early on.
modes of delivery — How international trade in services is supplied and consumed. Mode 1: cross border supply; mode 2: consumption abroad; mode 3: foreign commercial presence; and mode 4: movement of natural persons.
multi-modal — Transportation using more than one mode. In the GATS negotiations, essentially door-to-door services that include international shipping.
national schedules — The equivalent of tariff schedules in GATT, laying down the commitments accepted — voluntarily or through negotiation — by WTO members.
natural persons — People, as distinct from juridical persons such as companies and organizations.
offer — A country’s proposal for further liberalization.
protocols — Additional agreements attached to the GATS. The Second Protocol deals with the 1995 commitments on financial services. The Third Protocol deals with movement of natural persons.
prudence, prudential — In financial services, terms used to describe an objective of market regulation by authorities to protect investors and depositors, to avoid instability or crises.
schedule — “Schedule of Specific Commitments” — A WTO member’s list of commitments regarding market access and bindings regarding national treatment.
specific commitments — See “schedule”.
Regionalism/trade and development
ACP — African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Group of 71 countries with preferential trading relation with the EU under the former Lom? Treaty now called the Cotonou Agreement.
Andean Community — Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
APEC — Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
ASEAN — Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The seven ASEAN members of the WTO — Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand — often speak in the WTO as one group on general issues. The other ASEAN members are Laos and Vietnam.
Caricom — The Caribbean Community and Common Market comprises 15 countries.
CTD — The WTO Committee on Trade and Development
Customs union — Members apply a common external tariff (e.g. the EC).
EC — European Communities (official name of the European union in the WTO).
EFTA — European Free Trade Association.
free trade area — Trade within the group is duty free but members set own tariffs on imports from non-members (e.g. NAFTA).
G15 — Group of 15 developing countries acting as the main political organ for the Non-Aligned Movement.
G77 — Group of developing countries set up in 1964 at the end of the first UNCTAD (originally 77, but now more than 130 countries).
G7 — Group of seven leading industrial countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States.
GRULAC — Informal group of Latin-American members of the WTO.
GSP — Generalized System of Preferences — programmes by developed countries granting preferential tariffs to imports from developing countries.
HLM — WTO High-Level Meeting for LDCs, held in October 1997 in Geneva.
ITC — The International Trade Centre, originally established by the old GATT and is now operated jointly by the WTO and the UN, the latter acting through UNCTAD. Focal point for technical cooperation on trade promotion of developing countries.
LDCs — Least-developed countries.
MERCOSUR — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
NAFTA — North American Free Trade Agreement of Canada, Mexico and the US.
Quad — Canada, EC, Japan and the United States.
SACU — Southern African Customs union comprising Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.
S&D — “Special and differential treatment” provisions for developing countries. Contained in several WTO agreements.
UNCITRAL — United Nations Centre for International Trade Law, drafts model laws such as the one on government procurement.
UNCTAD — The UN Conference on Trade and Development.
Trade and environment
Agenda 21 — The Agenda for the 21st Century — a declaration from the 1992 Earth Summit (UN Conference on the Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro.
Article XX — GATT Article listing allowed “exceptions” to the trade rules.
Basel Convention — An MEA dealing with hazardous waste.
BTA — Border tax adjustment
CITES — Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. An MEA.
CTE — The WTO Committee on Trade and Environment.
EST — Environmentally-sound technology.
EST&P — EST and products.
ex ante, ex post — Before and after a measure is applied.
LCA — Life cycle analysis — a method of assessing whether a good or service is environmentally friendly.
MEA — Multilateral environmental agreement.
Montreal Protocol — An MEA dealing with the depletion of the earth’s ozone layer.
PPM — Process and production method.
TBT — The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.
waiver — Permission granted by WTO members allowing a WTO member not to comply with normal commitments. Waivers have time limits and extensions have to be justified.
