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A Brief Note On Article IIi Gatt Should Consider The Aims And Effects Of Any State Measure Essay

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The likeness test of Article III GATT should consider the aims and effects of any state measure. Critically discuss the above statement taking into account GATT panels and the decisions of the Appellate Body of the WTO. The World Trade Organisation (WTO), through the constitutionalisation of international economic agreements, pursues one main objective of liberalising commercial relations as well as providing an institutional framework for multilateral negotiations. The principal component of the organisation is its perpetual non-discriminating policy, which can be observed in its consensual process of decision making, emphasized even more by the “one member, one vote” rule applied therein. This paritious guideline is well illustrated by several non-discrimination rules contained in most of the agreements concluded under the organisation aegis. The principle of the National Treatment, as enounced in the article III:1 of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), prevents the members of the organisation from distinguishing between national and import products once they have been assimilated to their domestic market. The purpose of this article as stated by the Panel in the US section 337 Case (1) is to “ensure that internal measures were not be applied to imported or domestic products so as to afford protection to domestic products.”. Consequently, to uncover and curb some potential protectionist measures, the WTO has developed the concept of likeness which is

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