Unit 3 - Readings & Viewings

By way of general introduction, World Trade Organization--  Explained with Maps:

and, a virtual tour of the WTO:

The WTO itself is physically located in Geneva, Switzerland in a building approximately the size of the new USC Law School building.

Read the entire 1947 GATT Agreement, which was essentially incorporated by reference into the 1994 WTO Agreement at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round.  Understand that there are currently some very basic principles at what I would call the constitutional level, namely “most favoured nations” (all foreigners get the same deal), “national treatment” (foreigners should be treated the same way as locals), judicialization of disputes through the WTO dispute resolution system (which system did not exist under the 1947 GATT, so its addition is arguably the single greatest formal change between the 1947 and 1994 versions of international trade law), and the like.  

We shall discuss these matters in detail in subsequent class meetings, but to assist in reading the treaty text upfront for background purposes you can view some basic short videos the WTO has made itself:  

(1)  Main Features to the WTO

(2)   Most Favoured Nation (MFN)

(3) National Treatment Principle

(4)  General Exceptions

(5) Special Treatment for Less Developed Members

(6) The Dispute Settlement System

Should you wonder where the above short videos come from, the WTO runs its own “capacity building” operation, meaning it runs short courses online and in Geneva typically for junior through mid-level civil servants in developing country governments.  So if you were a junior lawyer in something like the Ministry of Agriculture in a smaller African country, this might be how you get your introduction to the WTO for purposes of working on liberalization of trade in agricultural goods (since you presumably spend most of your time worrying in a practical sense about food security, crop development and consumer prices for chilies and rice, etc.).

Then go to the WTO’s own general 1994 Uruguay Round agreements webpage, scanning first the 1994 GATT Agreement to see where changes may have been made to the 1947 GATT Agreement.  Then read the 1994 GATS Agreement more closely in comparison with the provisions of the 1947 GATT Agreement applicable to issues like MFN, National Treatment, and the basic scope of services coverage (the four modalities).  Finally, read, contrast and compare the SPS and TBT Agreements, noting that their coverage is largely mutually exclusive (so which of the two agreements you apply to a particular problem determines applicable substantive standards). For example, the Europeans and Americans have disagreed whether national regulation of genetically modified organism (GMO) products should be governed by the SPS or TBT Agreements.  The SPS Agreement basically provides that states seeking to regulate (and perhaps ban, in a practical sense) GMO foods must provide “scientific” evidence of the dangerousness of GMO food to justify such regulation, while the TBT Agreement has a much more relaxed view of regulatory standards in terms of judging them more under the standard whether they discriminate against foreign goods, here foods).

Regarding diplomatic protection generally, read:

Dugard, Articles on Diplomatic Protection (UN Audio-Visual Library on International Law 2006).