European Partnership Agreements - The Revival of Interim Agreements under GATT Art. XXIV

Brown Bag Seminar, Speaker: Dr. Amin Alavi - Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Law, Centre for International Business Law at the University of Aarhus 19 May 2008, 12.15 – 13.45 WTI Berne Switzerland   GATT Art. XXIV defines two different ways WTO member states can establish Regional – also called Preferential - Trade Agreements (RTAs): Firstly, through immediate elimination of duties and other restrictive trade regulations between constituent parties, either as Custom Unions (CUs) or Free Trade Areas (FTAs), and second through gradual elimination of duties and other restrictive trade regulations in form of Interim Agreements (IAs) leading to a CU or a FTA. Regardless of this distinction, almost all existing RTAs are notified to the WTO as CUs or FTAs and are treated as such, even though they operate with long transition period and should be regarded as IAs. So far this apparent breach of GATT rules has been tolerated by WTO members. But this tolerance may face new challenges since the EU has recently distinguished between the two types of RTAs and has announced that only one of its European Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with ACP countries is a final FTA while the others are interim agreements. Biography of Dr. Alavi   Mr. Alavi holds a PhD in International Relations and WTO and his research topics include legalization of international trade, intergovernmental dispute settlement and developing countries’ legal status in the WTO. In addition, he has worked as consultant on WTO-related issues and has been attached to the Danish Mission to the WTO, where he followed the WTO negotiations. Currently he is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Århus in Denmark and is working on legal and political aspects of the EU´s external trade. "European Partnership Agreements: The Revival of Interim Agreements under GATT Art. XXIV"