Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 The WTO Schedules
- 2 The goods Schedules
- 3 The services Schedules: specific commitments under the GATS
- 4 A practical guide
- Glossary
- Appendix 1 A closer reading of Article II of the GATT
- Appendix 2 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
- Appendix 3 General Agreement on Trade in Services
- Index
2 - The goods Schedules
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 The WTO Schedules
- 2 The goods Schedules
- 3 The services Schedules: specific commitments under the GATS
- 4 A practical guide
- Glossary
- Appendix 1 A closer reading of Article II of the GATT
- Appendix 2 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
- Appendix 3 General Agreement on Trade in Services
- Index
Summary
This chapter considers the structure and content of a member's WTO Schedules. It includes a ‘column by column’ description of the four tables that are still in use in the GATT Schedules. The chapter concludes with more information on the classification systems and on the system of negotiators' rights.
The word ‘tariff’ in the English language is borrowed, via Italian, from the Arabic word for ‘a notice’, ‘ta'riff(a)’ that, in turn, is a form of the Arabic verb meaning ‘to announce’. We still sometimes use the word ‘tariff’ to mean any list of published charges, such as a ‘hotel tariff’.
THE OVERALL STRUCTURE
The tables containing the WTO Schedules have special formats, and are organized using classification systems that can make them difficult to follow at first. But they are not difficult to understand once you are familiar with the organization of the content and some of the terms used to describe the different obligations registered in the Schedules.
Goods Schedules have a format first described in a document issued in December 1993, at the end of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations (WTO document MTN.GNG/MA/W/25).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Handbook on Reading WTO Goods and Services Schedules , pp. 21 - 32Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009