Balance of Payment
Cristel Moriau
Introduction to International Economic Law
Academiejaar: 2009-2010
Balance- of- payment – exception in the WTO
| |
|Background |
|The WTO is the principal regulator of the commercial pillar of the international economic system. The influence of this Organization |
|is considerable, as it has a system of compulsory jurisdiction of disputes for the 153 members. If you become a member of the WTO, |
|you have to accept that disputes will be settled by it. [1] |
|This entire commercial multilateral GATT-system consists of four fundamental principles. The first one being that even though it is |
|required that Member States open their borders to trade, they still can protect their national production against foreign |
|concurrence, provided that this protection is assured by moderate custom duties. For this, quantitative restrictions are prohibited, |
|except in certain circumstances, as will be discussed in the balance- of- payments-exception (see infra). |
|The second rule provides the reduction and elimination of custom duties and other barriers to trade. These reduced rights are then |
|indicated in the concession list of every Member State, which must be respected. |
|The third rule is the Most-Favored-Nation-treatment-principle: this implies that States shall not be discriminatory with the States |
|they import from or export to: when a State gives an advantage to a product from another State it must handle all same products from |
|other States according to the same favorable treatment. This rule is not
Introduction to International Economic Law
Academiejaar: 2009-2010
Balance- of- payment – exception in the WTO
| |
|Background |
|The WTO is the principal regulator of the commercial pillar of the international economic system. The influence of this Organization |
|is considerable, as it has a system of compulsory jurisdiction of disputes for the 153 members. If you become a member of the WTO, |
|you have to accept that disputes will be settled by it. [1] |
|This entire commercial multilateral GATT-system consists of four fundamental principles. The first one being that even though it is |
|required that Member States open their borders to trade, they still can protect their national production against foreign |
|concurrence, provided that this protection is assured by moderate custom duties. For this, quantitative restrictions are prohibited, |
|except in certain circumstances, as will be discussed in the balance- of- payments-exception (see infra). |
|The second rule provides the reduction and elimination of custom duties and other barriers to trade. These reduced rights are then |
|indicated in the concession list of every Member State, which must be respected. |
|The third rule is the Most-Favored-Nation-treatment-principle: this implies that States shall not be discriminatory with the States |
|they import from or export to: when a State gives an advantage to a product from another State it must handle all same products from |
|other States according to the same favorable treatment. This rule is not
References: ----------------------- [1]X., “Les quatre grandes règles du GATT”, http://www.jurisint.org/pub/06/fr/doc/C02.pdf (8 December 2009). [2] X., “Les quatre grandes règles du GATT”, http://www.jurisint.org/pub/06/fr/doc/C02.pdf (8 December 2009). [4] G. RILLEY, “As Macroeconomics/International Economy: balance of payments September 2006”, http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/as-macro-balance-of-payments.html (consultation 1 December 2009). [5] N.S. FIELEKE, What is the Balance of Payment, Boston, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1996, 12. [11] X., “Technical information on Balance of Payments”, www.wto.org [12] X.,“Les quatre grandes règles du GATT”, http://www.jurisint.org/pub/06/fr/doc/C02.pdf, 2 (8 December 2009).