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2.3.1 WTO rules
The reciprocal WTO-rules of the Most Favored Nation Clause and the National
Treatment Clause are applied to all free trade agreements, as well as bilateral investment
agreements. The cross-border design of market access, according to the
principles of non-discrimination of the
• Most Favored Nation Clause (“most favored nation treatment”: no less favorable
than the treatment granted to any other country) and the
• National Treatment Clause (“national treatment: giving others the same treatment
as one’s own nationals. Treating foreigners and locals equally” 90 ), is supposed to
give foreign suppliers from all countries the same opportunities as domestic suppliers.
This, according to the ideas of the WTO, should affect all areas of trade as
defined by the WTO, i.e., the area of goods (GATT), services (GATS) as well as the
trade-relevant area of intellectual property rights (TRIPS). The GATT-treaty is a socalled
“top-down” agreement, which means that the rules are automatically valid
for all member states, except for the case that a country has been able to explicitly
exclude certain areas in form of so-called “negative sectors lists.” The GATS agreement
is a so-called “bottom-up” agreement, according to which only those areas
are affected by the accorded rules, which appear in the “list of commitments,” the
so-called “positive sectors lists.” Investment issues affect the areas of goods (GATT)
as well as services (GATS), and according to the WTO can be classified within the
topic of “trade and investment” and divided into three levels:
• The TRIMs agreement 91 (investment in the goods sector)
• The GATS agreement 92 (investment in the services sector is one of four areas
treated by GATS)
• Relationships of “trade and investment” 93 is one of the so-called Singapore Issues
94 on the WTO-agenda since 1996. The “new issues” established at the WTO
Ministerial Conference in Singapore are:
90
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact2_e.htm.
91
http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/18-trims.pdf.
92
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/serv_e.htm.
93
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/invest_e/invest_e.htm.
94
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/bey6_e.htm.