This handbook describes the historical and legal background to the TRIPS Agreement, its role in the WTO and its institutional framework. It reviews the following areas: general provisions and basic principles; copyright and related rights; trademarks; geographical indications; patents; industrial designs, layout-designs, undisclosed information and anti-competitive practices; enforcement of IPR…
This handbook describes the historical and legal background to the TRIPS Agreement, its role in the WTO and its institutional framework and reviews the following areas: general provisions and basic principles; copyright and related rights; trademarks; geographical indications; patents; industrial designs, layout-designs, undisclosed information and anti-competitive practices; enforcement of IPR…
The WTO dispute settlement system has become one of the most dynamic, effective and successful international dispute settlement systems in the world over the past twenty years. This second edition of A Handbook on the WTO Dispute Settlement System has been compiled by the dispute settlement lawyers of the WTO Secretariat with a view to providing a practice-oriented account of the system. In add…
This guide to the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement is based on the authors' experiences of teaching its finer points to customs officials and policy-makers around the world. Covering the methods of valuation and the provisions on enforcement, implementation and dispute settlement, the authors give practical examples, explain interpretative decisions of national and international customs bodies, …
This handbook aims to provide a better understanding of GATS and the challenges and opportunities of the ongoing negotiations. For users who are familiar with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), similarities and differences are pointed out where relevant. Likewise, for users who are familiar with the balance-of-payments definition of 'trade', departures from the Agreement's cover…
This is a detailed guide on how to read WTO Schedules of Commitments for Goods and Services. The Schedules are part of the Legal Texts of the WTO Uruguay Round Agreements. They comprise about 27,000 pages of specific commitments by 153 members of the WTO on market access conditions for their markets. Understanding how to interpret the Schedules is essential for anyone wishing to glean informati…
The subject of anti-dumping procedures has received growing attention in international trade policy and has become a source of tension between countries. This handbook covers the major areas arising in anti-dumping investigations as embodied in the relevant WTO provisions, providing an exposition of well-sourced information, explanations and guidance for grasping the intricacies of anti-dumping…
The Handbook provides a detailed explanation and analysis of the process whereby governments become Members of the WTO. The WTO Agreement, which came into force on 1 January, 1995, provides few details on how this process is to take place. Consequently, the steps in the detailed negotiations leading up to access have evolved through the actual negotiations for governments which have become Memb…
The first version of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules was endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1976. Now considered one of UNCITRAL's greatest successes, the rules have had an extraordinary impact on international arbitration as both instruments in their own right and as guides for others. The Iran-US Claims Tribunal, for example, employs a barely modified version of…