The Market Access Card was developed by the International Trade Centre (ITC) to facilitate market access for businesses, governments and researchers. The database, which is visible via the market access card online tool, contains information on tariff and non-tariff barriers in all active trade agreements, not limited to agreements officially notified to the WTO. It also documents data on non-preferential trade agreements (e.B Generalised System of Preferences systems). By 2019, the Market Access Card has provided downloadable links to textual agreements and their rules of origin. [27] The new version of the Market Access Card, to be published this year, will provide direct web links to relevant contract pages and connect to other ITC tools, in particular the Original Facilitator Guidelines. It is expected to become a versatile tool that helps businesses understand free trade agreements and qualify for origin requirements under these agreements. [28] In the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994), free trade agreements were originally defined as covering only trade in goods. [5] An agreement with a similar objective, namely to promote the liberalization of trade in services, is referred to in Article V of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as the “Economic Integration Agreement”. [6] In practice, however, the term is now often used [by whom?] to refer to agreements that concern not only goods, but also services and even investment. Environmental regulations have also become increasingly common in international investment agreements such as free trade agreements. [7]:104 Free trade agreements help expand global trade opportunities for U.S. producers and exporters. Bilateral and multilateral trade agreements remove barriers to trade, reduce or eliminate tariffs, and promote investment and economic growth.
There are important differences between customs unions and free trade areas. Both types of trading blocs have internal agreements that the parties conclude in order to liberalize and facilitate trade between them. The crucial difference between customs unions and free trade areas lies in their approach to third parties. While a customs union requires all parties to introduce and maintain identical external tariffs for trade with non-contracting parties, parties to a free trade area are not subject to such a requirement. Instead, they may introduce and maintain any customs procedure applicable to imports from non-Contracting Parties which they deem necessary. [3] In a free trade area without harmonised external tariffs, the Parties will introduce a system of preferential rules of origin in order to eliminate the risk of trade offshoring. [4] The United States currently has a number of free trade agreements. These include multinational agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which covers the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which covers most Central American countries. There are also separate trade agreements with countries ranging from Australia to Peru. First, customs duties and other provisions maintained in each of the Parties to a free trade area and applicable to trade with non-Contracting Parties to that free trade area at the time of the establishment of such a free trade area shall not be higher or more restrictive than the corresponding duties and other provisions existing in those Contracting Parties before the formation of the free trade area. Area.
In other words, the creation of a free trade area to grant preferential treatment to its members is legitimate under WTO law, but parties to a free trade area must not treat non-contracting parties worse than before the creation of the territory. A second requirement set out in Article XXIV is that tariffs and other barriers to trade must be removed for all trade within the free trade area. [10] For example, a country could allow free trade with another country, with exceptions that prohibit the importation of certain drugs that are not approved by its regulatory agencies, or animals that have not been vaccinated, or processed foods that do not meet its standards. The creation of free trade areas is considered an exception to the most-favoured-nation principle of the World Trade Organization (WTO), as preferences granted exclusively by parties to a free trade area go beyond their membership obligations. [9] Although Article XXIV of the GATT allows WTO Members to establish free trade areas or to conclude the interim agreements necessary for their establishment, there are several conditions relating to free trade areas or interim agreements leading to the formation of free trade areas. .