The World Customs Organization (WCO, Organization Mondiale des Dounaes, OMD) is an intergovernmental organisation that was founded as European Customs Co- Operation Council in 1952 in Brussels/Belgium. It governs all Customs co-operation matters from tariff nomenclature, over universal Customs...

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are growing more and more important in the global trade in goods and services. Between 1958 and 2005, 141 RTAs concerning the trade in goods were indicated to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Secretariat (since 1995 the World Trade Organization...

Some scientists and authorities are arguing that tariffs are growing more and more unimportant since eight GATT/WTO-Tariff-Rounds have resulted in tremendous reductions of the original tariff rates in the late 1940ies. The Non-Tariff-Measures however are gaining more importance. A...

From 1948 to 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Secretariat received 124 indications of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) relating to the trade in goods, and since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, more than 240 additional RTAs (covering trade in...

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are growing more and more important in the global trade in goods and services. The WTO has now launched a new database on RTAs that contains all relevant documentation received by the WTO Secretariat

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has 164 member states and its Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA) currently has 149 signatories. The World Customs Organization (WCO) has 183 member states and its most successful legal instrument — the Harmonized System Convention (HSC) — has 158...