Q7 Single Undertaking Flashcards
What is the WTO’s Single Undertaking
The multilateral trade agreements (Annexes 1, 2 and 3) are applicable to ALL Members and as such are deemed a “single undertaking”
Most of the agreements negotiated during the Uruguay Round are part of this “single package”, including the GATT 1994, the Agreement on Agriculture, the GATS and the TRIPS.
The Schedules of Commitments also form part of the single undertaking.
WTO Members make specific commitments during trade negotiations. For GATT 1994,these take the form of binding commitments on tariffs for goods in general and combinations of tariffs and quotas for some agricultural goods. For GATS, the commitments on market access state how much access foreign service providers are allowed for specific sectors. Agreements related to GATT 1947 were negotiated during negotiating rounds prior to the Uruguay Round. In particular, some agreements on non-tariff barriers were negotiated during the Tokyo Round. However, these agreements were not adopted by all GATT Contracting Parties; they applied only to those countries who agreed to be bound by them.
In the Uruguay Round, a different approach was adopted - it was decided that the multilateral trade agreements were to be accepted as a whole (bind all WTOMembers). This approach is knows as the “single undertaking”.As mentioned earlier, the concept of “single undertaking”, which in practical terms means”nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”, is also being used for negotiations under the DDA.
What does it mean politically?
In the political sense, it means that a deal is first complete when all negotiations are completed on all fronts. That means that all negotiations and every single item of a negotiation are part of a whole and cannot be agreed separately. (“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”)
As an example, in the Doha Round, the negotiations are described as a single undertaking. All the negotiations form a single package divided into 20 subjects and must be signed by all countries without the option to pick and choose between the different subjects.
another notes: During the negotiations, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. You could not split part of the negotiations. You have to agree on everything before the WTO agreement can be signed. Countries are therefore less scared to make compromises in given sectors knowing they can still say No at the end. If you are negotiation the TBT and unsure whether this is to your advantage, and it might depend as well on subsidies because a good deal they might make it OK to have lower standards in the TBT domain – it is all about how you balance the whole agreement. Negotiate in part but at the end look at the whole package to decide – facilitate the negotiation process.
Does the fact that each WTO Member has its own set of scheduled commitment affect this Single Undertaking?
The Schedules of Commitments also form part of the single undertaking. , WTO Members make specific commitments during trade negotiations. For GATT 1994,these take the form of binding commitments on tariffs for goods in general and combinations of tariffs and quotas for some agricultural goods. For GATS, the commitments on market access state how much access foreign service providers are allowed for specific sectors.
In the context of WTO negotiations, does it prohibit the provisional application of any negotiated agreement?
[t]he single undertaking is further reflected in the provisions of the WTO Agreement dealing with original membership, accession, non-application of the Multilateral Trade Agreements between particular Members, acceptance of the WTO Agreement, and withdrawal from it. Within this framework, all WTO Members are bound by all the rights and obligations in the WTO Agreement and its Annexes 1, 2 and 3.”
What is a single package?
The “single undertaking” is a new approach adopted during the Uruguay Round. According to it, the multilateral agreements negotiated were to be accepted as a whole (as a single package).
What does it mean “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.
Negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) proceed simultaneously, not sequentially, and all Members must accept all the results. Therefore, a round of negotiation only stops when every group has finished.
What agreements are the part of the single undertaking?
- The Agreement Establishing the WTO
- Annex 1A GATT (Members schedules of commitments)
- Annex 1B GATS Members schedules of commitments (and MFN Exemptions)
- Annex 1C TRIPS
- Annex 2 Dispute Settlement Understanding DSU
- Annex 3 Trade Policy Review Mechanism - TPRM
- Annex 4 Plurilateral trade agreements
What are four plurilateral trade agreements ?
They were also negotiated during the Uruguay Round, which bind only those Members who accepted them. These are the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, the Agreement on Government Procurement, the International Dairy Agreement and the International Bovine Meat Agreement. The latter two were terminated at the end of 1997.
What does it mean legally
The WTO is a single treaty and if you join the WTO you are bound by all provisions. No reservations may be made in respect to any provision of the Agreement. (Reservations may only be made to the extent provided for in those Agreements (Art. XVI Miscellaneous Provisions).)
The single undertaking notion can also be seen as a presumption against internal conflicts.
another notes:
There is only one agreement and all the other smaller ones are in fact chapters of the bigger one. This means you cannot pick parts to be bound with. You can also not make reservations to certain rules.
Also legally, there must be a coherent and harmonious interpretation of the whole agreement. Under a certain condition if you must retaliate under a country blocking your trade you can do it in the same sector but also have cross retaliation p.ex. In the Banana case, when the EU lost the case they did not want to apply rules that would give equal treatment to all the ACP countries and all the former colonies. Ecuador could ask for retaliation and since what they import from the European countries was food and medicine, things they actually need, they could not just block trade. So, the way they proceeded is that they put sanctions in another sectors – they decided to create a bubbly wine called champagne and they could make an impact by violation intellectual property rights rather than trading goods.
What cases exemplify the legal sense of the single undertaking?
The term single undertaking is used in Part B: Interpretation and Application of Article II of the the Marrakesh Agreement by citing the case Brazil-Desiccated Coconut where the Appellate Body illustrates the single undertaking nature of the WTO as follows: “[t]he single undertaking is further reflected in the provisions of the WTO Agreement dealing with original membership, accession, non-application of the Multilateral Trade Agreements between particular Members, acceptance of the WTO Agreement, and withdrawal from it. Within this framework, all WTO Members are bound by all the rights and obligations in the WTO Agreement and its Annexes 1, 2 and 3.”
In Korea-Dairy and Argentina-Footwear the Appellate Body said that, relying on Article II:1 as a basis, that Article XIX of the GATT 1994 and the Safeguards Agreement are an “inseparable package”: “It is important to understand that the WTO Agreement is one treaty. The GATT 1994 and the Agreement on Safeguards are both Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods contained in Annex 1A, which are integral parts of that treaty and are equally binding on all Members pursuant to Article II:2 of the WTO Agreement. (…)
The GATT 1994 and the Agreement on Safeguards are both Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods contained in Annex 1A of the WTO Agreement, and, as such, are both ‘integral parts’ of the same treaty, the WTO Agreement, that are ‘binding on all Members’. (…) Yet a treaty interpreter must read all applicable provisions of a treaty in a way that gives meaning to all of them, harmoniously. And, an appropriate reading of this ‘inseparable package of rights and disciplines’ must, accordingly, be one that gives meaning to all the relevant provisions of these two equally binding agreements.”
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The single undertaking, single treaty, therefore all provisions should be interpreted as treaty as a whole.
Two rules of conflict: Provision in the institutional agreement than clashes to one down, the provision of the Agreement establishing the WTO prevails.
If there is a conflict between the GATT provisions and any below there is also a conflict rule defined in GATT 1994. That says “ lex specialis will prevail” – more specific will prevail.
Review class:
when you are joining a WTO It is a whole package (one agreement ) and not a set of small agreements which you are agree.
Single undertaking has two main definition (meaning), legal and political understanding.
Political: during the negotiation main idea was nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. (simply its not possible to split part of negotiation for example we have already reached negotiation on TBT now we can move to the rest and TBT its ok we will ratified in the end. No, You need to agree on the whole package before the WTO agreement can be sign.
How it helps negotiation, countries are less scared to make compromises in given sectors by knowing that they can say no in the end, so when you are negotiating TBT and you are not sure it is to your advantage or not and it may depend on subsidize because if you will get a good deal there then you may be ok with having lower standards on TBT then. Here is all about how you balance the whole agreement.
So you can negotiatiate the part of it and stop negotiation. Negotiation subsidize, dumping and in the end you are look on the whole package and decide whether you are agree with that or not. It is allow less obstacles in the negotiation process.
Legal meaning its a whole agreement. there is only one WTO agreement and then other smaller agreements: annexes or chapters of the bigger agreement. It also means that there are not cherry picking, you can not to chose to be bound only by GATT and TBT etc, you need to agree to everything, you are bound with all agreements of WTO.
You can not make a reservation in WTO (you can not say I take everything but I do not want to take that).
thats why DSS is so effective in WTO. Country can not say I agree with all rules (agreements) but I do not want to be brought before DSS.
You need to have coherent and harmonization interpretation of the whole agreement. they decided to go to single undertaking at very late in negotiation stage but at that point that already had some part which comity negotiated, some parts which may conflict with others. If some part has a conflict you need to have coherent harmonization interpretation.
Dispute Settlement part:
Under certain condition if you have to retaliate agains another country who is blocking your trade you can try first to do it in the same sector where the country is blocking your trade but ultimately you can have whats call cross retaliation that is for instance issue case with banana war: EU lost the case, they did not want apply to smth which will give an equal treatment to all ACP countries and the formal colonies. So, Ecuador was allow to take a retaliation and since what they import from EU food and drugs, the things which they actually needed. So they could not say I will block the trade and will stop trading with you, so what they did that you put sanction in another sector, instead of blocking the food they decided to create a bubbling wine which was called a Champaign in this way they knew they will have actually impact on the violating IPR rather then trading goods. The heart of political issues: the vine yards were very unhappy that they could find Champaign form Ecuador. thanks to a single undertaking, one big roof of the agreements they can solve this issue.
