Regional Trade Agreements in the GATT/WTO: Article XXIV and the Internal Trade Requirement

This book addresses legal aspects of GATT Article XXIV and its 'internal' trade requirements as they define the WTO gateway for regional trade agreements. The case for a narrow avenue is made by exploring historical foundations in the Havana ITO negotiations and later difficulties of applying provisions to developed-developing country free-trade areas. The external economic effects for the trade of non-members will remain of concern, but rules of origin and regional safeguard regimes can affect intra-regional trade between large and small members as well. The GATT-47 practice is contrasted with WTO developments as dispute settlement reports have established the conditional legal nature of the regional exception. A treaty law argument is made that GATT/WTO rules retain continuing validity for regional members. Implications for the WTO review process are considered.