Chapter 12. International trade, standards and regulations Learning objective

3. What are the basic functioning principles of WTO that have an impact on 
the problems of standardization? 
 
In accordance with the fundamental documents of the WTO its activities are based on a 
number of very important principles. Among them we will comment on only those that are 
relevant to the subject of this section. 

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1) Organization and maintenance of fair competition through the negotiating 
process and execution of arrangements, decisions and agreements
The cornerstone of the WTO activity is the solution of all the procedural, legal and 
terminological issues through negotiations, often very difficult and time-consuming. 
Achieved with such difficulty arrangements are fixed in the form of documents of different 
status, and after their adoption member countries must comply with them. Of course, these 
documents are not permanent and can be changed or even cancelled, but again only via the 
negotiation process and voting. 
2) Liberalization of international trade – steady reduction of justified barriers and 
removing of unnecessary barriers to trade. 
As justified barriers are considered those customs barriers that are imposed by states in 
the implementation of their sovereign rights to protect economic space and economic 
interests. Among these barriers the most important are tariff restrictions (customs import and 
export duties) on import or export of various product groups. Also take place non-tariff 
measures. Such as the introduction of physical quotas for individual countries, the overall
upper restrictions on the import, prior import permission, licensing, export subsidies, using 
of dumping and etc. It should be noted that the WTO considers the non-tariff measures of 
customs regulations as contradictory to the rules of fair market competition, and since 2005 
requires a complete cessation of their use. 
GATT and the WTO during their existence have achieved very significant progress. To 
cite just two examples. The average level of import duties in world trade fell by dozens of 
times and now amounts to several percent. More than half of the full nomenclature of goods 
is traded without imposing a duty. The trend towards further liberalization is continues at the 
moment. 
Unnecessary barriers include barriers, which under certain conditions can be completely 
removed without а damage to the sovereignty of the WTO member countries. The most 
significant for them are technical barriers. 
3) Reflection of the core requirements of the WTO Agreements in the national 
legislation of member countries. 
The very important requirement in line with the international legal is the principle of 
the priority of international treaties over national law. This requirement, in fact, means that 
the country which declared its intention to join the WTO, should carefully study the basic 
requirements of the WTO Agreements, and then reflect their essence in their domestic 
legislation and, if necessary, to change existing laws or to developing them again.