In addition to facilitating applied tariff reductions, the contribution of the FIRST GATT to trade liberalization includes “the commitment of negotiated tariff reductions for an extended period (more durable in 1955), the determination of the generalized nature of non-discrimination by most-favoured treatment (MFN) and the status of domestic treatment, the guarantee of greater transparency of trade policies and the establishment of a negotiating forum with a view to the peaceful settlement of bilateral disputes. All of these have contributed to streamlining trade policy and reducing trade barriers and political uncertainty. [4] Following the UK`s vote to leave the EU, supporters of leaving the EU proposed that Article 24(5b) of the Treaty could be used to maintain an “impasse” in trade terms between the UK and the EU if the UK leaves the EU without a trade deal, thus preventing the introduction of customs duties. According to proponents of this approach, it could be used to implement an interim agreement until a final agreement of up to ten years is negotiated. [25] The Uruguay Round Of Agriculture Agreement remains the main agricultural trade liberalization agreement in the history of trade negotiations. The objective of the agreement was to improve market access for agricultural products, reduce domestic support for agriculture in the form of price-distorting subsidies and quotas, remove export subsidies for agricultural products over time and harmonise sanitary and phytosanitary measures between Member States as much as possible. The claim that Article 24 could be used in this way has been criticised as unrealistic by Mark Carney, Liam Fox and other parties, given that there must be agreement between the parties to paragraph 5 quarter of the Treaty for paragraph 5 ter to be useful in the event of a no-deal scenario. There would be no agreement. In addition, critics of the GATT 24 approach point out that services would not be covered by such regulation. [28] [29] While the GATT was a set of rules on which nations agreed, the WTO is an intergovernmental organization with its own headquarters and staff, and its scope encompasses both trade in goods, trade in services, and intellectual property rights. .
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