| The principle of non-discrimination as enunciated in its Articles I on General Most Favoured Nation Treatment (MFN) and III on National Treatment (NT) is the foundation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). Yet, articles of GATT included many exceptions to MFN, of which one of the most serious was Article XXIV relating to Customs Unions (CU) and Free Trade Areas (FTA). Clearly there was a tension, if not contradiction, between the fundamental principle of nondiscrimination and inherently discriminatory preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) such as CUs and FTAs. This tension was not a serious practical one as long as a few PTAs were proposed, let alone implemented, as was the case... |
