Download Locations

• National Agricultural Law Center

Summary

World Trade Organization (WTO) Members must grant immediate and unconditional most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment to the products of other Members with respect to tariffs and other trade-related measures. Programs such as the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), under which developed countries grant preferential tariff rates to developing country products, are facially inconsistent with this obligation since they accord goods of some countries more favorable tariff treatment than that accorded goods of other WTO Members. Because such programs have been viewed as trade-expanding, however, Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided a legal basis for one-way tariff preferences and certain other preferential arrangements in a 1979 decision known as the Enabling Clause. In 2004, the WTO Appellate Body ruled that the Clause allows developed countries to offer different treatment to developing countries, but only if identical treatment is available to all similarly situated GSP beneficiaries. Where WTO Members' preference programs have provided benefits in excess of GSP programs, the WTO has granted Members, including the United States, waivers of WTO obligations. S. 191 andH.R. 886 would grant preferential market access to products of the leastdeveloped countries. H.R. 3175 would expand textile-related trade preferences to subSaharan African countries. S. 1937 and H.R. 4211 would provide textile-related preferences to Haiti. H.R. 5070 would extend for one year the GSP and Andean preference programs, each of which is set to expire in 2006. This report will be updated.

Related Legislation:
• S.191
• H.R.886
• H.R.3175
• S.1937
• H.R.4211
• H.R.5070

XML