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International Trade Law

WTO Agreements 

Text of Agreements

The WTO website provides includes all of the agreements, ministerial decisions, and ministerial declarations reached at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1994.  It also provides access to post-1994 WTO agreements and protocols.  Summaries and explanatory notes are provided for select agreements.  All agreements can be downloaded as Word or PDF files.  

 

Click on 'Annotated Agreements & Texts' in the blue menu bar at the top of the homepage. This tool provides fully annotated texts of thirteen principal WTO agreements. The annotations include an Article Citator, Jurisprudence Citator, issue content from WTO jurisprudence, cross-references, incorporated instruments, procedural documents, negotiating history, and precursor texts. The Annotated Agreements & Texts tool also includes the texts of 64 WTO agreements and instruments with links to Article Citator, Jurisprudence Citator, Negotiating History and Precursor Agreements. 

The subject matter of Annotated Agreements & Texts is fully indexed in the Subject Navigator. Select the Subject Navigator from the blue menu bar at the top of the screen.

 

The open-access part of this platform includes full texts of WTO agreements, as well as ministerial decisions and declarations adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee. Hover the cursor over 'WTO Cases & Legal Texts' in the green menu bar at the top of the homepage. To view all available Uruguay Round agreements, click on the 'UR Agreements' link.

Negotiating Histories 

Negotiating histories, also known as travaux préparatoires or preparatory works, include the preliminary drafts of a treaty text and other official records generated during the negotiations. These can be found in:

(UniMelb staff & students) - click the Negotiating History button on the top menu bar. Includes approximately 1700 Uruguay Round negotiating documents, including the principal negotiating texts and key working group documents.

Includes additional Uruguay Round negotiating documents.

Click By Topic in the red menu and select trade negotiations.

 

Status of WTO Legal Instruments 

The Status of WTO Legal Instruments (2015) (open access on the WTO website) covers the legal instruments drawn up by WTO members in relation to the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organisation and the plurilateral trade agreements annexed to that Agreement. For each legal instrument, information is provided regarding signature, acceptance, ratification, accession and entry into force. The relevant final clauses of each instrument are also included.