The principle of most-favored-nation treatment
(1) Most-favored-nation treatment for trade in goods
In terms of trade in goods, WTO General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 and other agreements stipulate in relevant clauses that members should give each other most-favored-nation treatment. That is to say, if a member gives benefits, preferences, privileges or exemptions to products originating in or shipped to other members, it shall immediately and unconditionally give the same products originating in or shipped to all other members. Most-favored-nation treatment requires WTO members not to discriminate against each other in trade, and all members, big or small, should be equal. As long as the products they import and export are the same, they should also enjoy the same treatment, without any conditions, and they should be permanent. For example, Japan, South Korea and the European Union are all members of the WTO, so when their cars with the same displacement are exported to the United States, the United States should treat the car imports of these countries equally and should not discriminate. If the tariff on imported cars in the United States is 5%, under normal trade conditions, the United States can only impose a tariff of 5% on cars from these countries, not on Japan, but on the European Union and South Korea at a tariff of 10% or higher.
The principle of most-favoured-nation treatment in trade in goods mainly aims at the following aspects:
First, import and export tariffs.
Second, any form of fees levied on the import and export itself. Such as import surtax.
Third, any form of import and export-related expenses. Such as customs declaration fee, consular invoice fee and quality inspection fee.
Fourth, the fees charged for international payment and import and export transfer. For example, some taxes and fees charged by the government for international payment of imports and exports.
Fifth, the collection method of the above taxes and fees. For example, when evaluating the value of imported goods when collecting tariffs, the evaluation standards, procedures and methods should be equal among all members.
Sixth, all laws and procedures related to import and export. For example, specify the specific information disclosure requirements or explanations for imports and exports in a specific period.
Seventh, levy domestic taxes or other domestic fees. Such as sales tax, related fees charged by local government, etc.
Eighth, any laws, regulations and requirements that affect the domestic sales, procurement, supply, transportation and distribution of products. For example, the requirements for the quality certificate of imported products, the requirements for the movement or transportation or storage or retail channels of imported products, and the restrictions on the special packaging and use of products.
Although trade in goods stipulates that a member must voluntarily grant unconditional, permanent, universal and multilateral MFN treatment to other WTO members, under certain circumstances, especially the special interests of developing countries and minority members, exceptions can be made to MFN treatment under certain conditions, and the principle of MFN treatment can be temporarily deviated after approval by the WTO. Mainly includes:
First, according to the decision of the General Conference of the Parties to GATT1October 28th, 1979, 165438, developing countries are given preferential treatment. This preference is mainly reflected in the following aspects: developed countries give more preferential differential tariff treatment to industrial products and semi-finished products exported by developing countries; Give more preferential and differential treatment to developing countries in non-tariff measures; Preferential tariffs can be implemented between developing countries and not given to developed countries; Special preferences for the least developed countries.
Second, free trade zones. The treatment enjoyed by a few countries stipulated in the customs union and border trade shall not be given to other WTO members; Treatment within an economic integration organization shall not be given to other WTO members who are not members of the organization. For example, zero tariff treatment among member States within the EU may not be given to the United States and Canada.
Third, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 stipulates all measures taken by a member to protect the lives, health and safety of animals, plants and people or for certain specific purposes.
Fourth, the exception of national security. That is, when a country's national security is threatened, it cannot fulfill its obligation of MFN treatment in the WTO, such as the economic sanctions imposed by the United States on Yugoslavia, which makes Yugoslavia unable to enjoy the MFN treatment granted by the United States.
Fifthly, other measures permitted by GATT 1994 mainly include countervailing, anti-dumping and retaliatory measures authorized under the dispute settlement mechanism. For example, in late April of 1999, the WTO authorized the United States to suspend MFN tariffs on a few products of the European Union.
Sixth, the exception of government procurement. Government procurement in the trade of goods does not fall within the jurisdiction of the WTO, so it does not enjoy MFN treatment at present.
Seventh, the obligations in port trade agreements that are not under the jurisdiction of the WTO. Mainly refers to government procurement. In the trade of civil aircraft, dairy products and beef, WTO members shall not give each other MFN treatment.
(2) Most-favored-nation treatment in service trade.
Article 2 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services stipulates that WTO members shall immediately and unconditionally give equal treatment to the services and service providers of any other member.
In view of the uneven development level of trade in services, GATS allows a few members to take measures inconsistent with MFN treatment before 2005, but these measures should be included in the exception list. These measures are temporary and will be abolished after 2005. After that, MFN treatment should be implemented unconditionally and permanently in all members in principle.
(3) Most-favored-nation treatment for trade-related intellectual property rights.
The WTO Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights stipulates MFN treatment as a general obligation and basic principle that its members must generally abide by. Article 4 of the Agreement stipulates that in terms of intellectual property protection, any benefits, preferences, privileges or immunities provided by a member to nationals of other members shall be immediately and unconditionally given to nationals of all other WTO members. In other words, the WTO requires that the nationals of all members should enjoy equal treatment in the protection of intellectual property rights and cannot discriminate against the nationals of a member. However, the MFN treatment of intellectual property rights can be an exception in the following cases:
First, the relevant policies and measures derived from general international agreements or judicial assistance and law enforcement agreements are not specifically formulated for intellectual property rights, such as some treatments stipulated in bilateral judicial assistance agreements.
The second is the treatment provided according to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (197 1) or the Rome Convention.
Third, the rights of performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organizations are not stipulated in the intellectual property agreement.
Fourth, it has been stipulated in the international agreements on intellectual property protection that came into effect before the establishment of the WTO, and these agreements have been notified to the WTO, as long as they do not constitute arbitrary or unfair discrimination against nationals of other members.
National treatment is a useful supplement to MFN treatment. On the basis of realizing the equal treatment of all WTO members, the goods or services of WTO members should also enjoy the same treatment as that of another member after entering its territory. This is another embodiment of the WTO's non-discriminatory trade principle-the principle of national treatment. Strictly speaking, it should be the principle that foreign goods or services are treated equally with domestic goods or services of importing countries.
2. The principle of national treatment of GATT1994 and its scope of application
The national treatment of WTO trade in goods is embodied in GATT 1994, the agreement on trade-related investment measures and other agreements on trade in goods. Among them, GATT 1994 follows the principle of national treatment in Article 3 of GATT 1947, and inherits all the rulings and explanations on national treatment disputes since the implementation of GATT 1947.
The principle of national treatment in GATT
First of all, the agreement stipulates that when products from one member's territory are imported to another member, the other member cannot levy domestic taxes or other fees higher than those levied by his own country on the same products in any direct or indirect way. For example, a WTO member can levy consumption tax on both domestic products and imported products, but not on imported products.
Second, laws, regulations and rules on the domestic sales, distribution, purchase, transportation, distribution or use of imported products should not be more favorable than those that give the same domestic products. Accordingly, if there are no provisions on domestic products in the above aspects, it is impossible to stipulate that imported products must meet certain requirements. For example, there is no requirement that domestic products must be stored in a specific warehouse or transported by a specific means of transport, so it is impossible to make such a requirement for imported products. Otherwise, it is regarded as a violation of the principle of national treatment.
Third, no member may directly or indirectly restrict the mixing, processing or use of products with a specific quantity or proportion of domestic quantity, or force the priority use of domestic products. For example, in the production of a chemical, it cannot be stipulated that a certain ingredient must use a certain proportion of domestic raw materials or domestic ingredients. Such as localization requirements and import substitution requirements, are regarded as direct or indirect discrimination against foreign products and violation of national treatment regulations.
Fourth, members are not allowed to protect domestic industries in a certain sense by means of domestic taxes, other domestic expenses or quantity regulations. This means that even if the same taxes and fees are applied to imported products and domestic products, different collection methods may constitute protection for domestic production. Similar quantitative regulations cannot be applied in a way that domestic production provides protection. In addition, "domestic production" refers not only to the production of this product, but also to the production of products and substitutes that directly compete with imported products.
It is worth pointing out that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 stipulates that domestic quantitative restrictions on the mixing, processing or use of products must meet specific quantitative or proportional requirements, and the implementation should abide by the most-favored-nation treatment principle.
(2) Some principles formed in the implementation of the principle of national treatment.
First, national treatment does not consider the fact that a product is bound by tariffs. No member can impose a higher domestic tax on a product on the grounds that it is not bound by tariffs, nor can it impose a higher tariff on the product itself.
Second, national treatment must be implemented for every imported product. It is not allowed to choose and weigh between various ways that affect different products and different treatments. Therefore, a product cannot be discriminated against on the grounds that it has obtained more preferential treatment in other aspects, or that other export products of the exporting country have obtained more preferential treatment.
Third, when a product enjoys different treatment in different regions of a country, the same imported product should be given the most preferential treatment.
(3) Exceptions to national treatment of trade in goods
The obligation of national treatment does not apply to government decrees, rules and regulations related to government procurement, but "government procurement" here refers to the purchase of goods at the daily expenses of the government, which is not used for commercial resale and cannot be used for the production of commercial resale goods. The obligation of national treatment does not prohibit the payment of subsidies to domestic producers alone.
If the previous restrictions on the number of films are newly designated or maintained and conform to Article IV of GATT, the principle of national treatment does not prohibit such restrictions.
The WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures stipulates that developing countries are allowed to subsidize the use of domestic products within five years from the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement. For the least developed countries, this period is extended to eight years from the date of entry into force of the agreement.
Requirements for local ingredients and restrictions on the use of imported products are considered to be in violation of the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures. However, developed member countries can phase out these measures within two years from the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement. This period is five years for developing countries and regions and seven years for least developed countries.
In short, the WTO stipulates that when a member's products enter the importing country after paying normal import duties and related fees, they should enjoy the same treatment as the domestic products of the importing country.
(4) The principle of national treatment in the General Agreement on Trade in Services.
Uruguay Round negotiations extended the principle of national treatment from trade in goods to trade in services. In the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services, the content of national treatment is not included in universal obligations and principles like MFN treatment, but appears in the form of specific commitments.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services stipulates that, as long as it does not violate the relevant provisions of this Agreement and meets the conditions and requirements in the schedule of commitments, the treatment given by a member to other members' services and service providers in all measures affecting the supply of services shall not be lower than that given to domestic services or service providers.
Due to the differences between service trade and commodity trade and their own complexity, the national treatment requirements between them are quite different. 《
An important feature of the General Agreement on Trade in Services is that market access and national treatment are not universal obligations, but specific commitments to open to various sectors or sub-sectors, so that countries with small differences can reach an agreement as soon as possible. Developing countries cannot be forced to open their hard-to-open service markets, otherwise it will increase their burden in service trade and balance of payments, which is contrary to the purpose of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Therefore, the national treatment in service trade is based on the agreement reached by WTO members through negotiations on the basis of equality, and national treatment is implemented in different industries to varying degrees according to the agreement. In addition, the implementation of the principle of national treatment in the service field should be based on the principle of reciprocity, but this reciprocity should not be absolute, but meet the needs of countries with different levels of development.
(5) National treatment in the field of trade-related intellectual property rights.
Article 3 of the Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights stipulates that the treatment given by each member to the nationals of other members for the protection of intellectual property rights shall not be lower than that given to its own nationals. The Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights stipulates that the national treatment involved in this agreement should be consistent with the provisions of the Paris Convention (1967) and the Berne Convention (197 1). Articles 2 and 3 of the Paris Convention stipulate that in the protection of industrial property rights, the members of the Paris Convention must also give the treatment given to their own citizens to the nationals of other member States, and there is no discrimination against the nationals of other member States. In addition, this principle also means that member States may not ask for reciprocal protection. If the patent protection period of a member country is longer than that of another member country, the former has no right to stipulate in its laws that the nationals of the latter only enjoy the protection period stipulated in the latter's laws in that country.
The Paris Convention also stipulates that no member country may require nationals of other member countries to have permanent residences or business offices in the country in order to enjoy legal industrial property rights; As for the nationals of non-member countries, as long as they have a fixed residence or a real and legal business place in the territory of the member countries of the Union, they should enjoy the same treatment as the nationals of the member countries of the Union.
The Paris Convention lists the scope of reservations allowed by countries when implementing the principle of national treatment. It is also in line with the common practice of the international community to stipulate that in the field of industrial property protection, all laws involving judicial administrative procedures and jurisdiction can be retained and foreigners are not given national treatment.
Berne Convention (197 1) stipulates that for works protected by this Convention, authors from countries other than the country of origin of the works shall enjoy the rights conferred or may be conferred on their nationals by the laws of various countries and the special rights of this Convention. For the scope of works that can enjoy national treatment, the Berne Convention stipulates the double standards of "the principle of nationality of authors" and "the principle of nationality of works".
Different from the agreements of international intellectual property protection organizations, the national treatment of intellectual property rights in WTO focuses on the national treatment of products, not the national treatment of authors. In addition, the Paris Convention extends the scope of "nationals" to nationals of non-member countries who have permanent residence or real and regular business offices in member countries, and the Berne Convention extends to nationals of non-member countries who have settled in member countries. On the whole, however, the treaties of WTO and the international intellectual property protection organization all list national treatment as an applicable principle, and at the same time, the provisions on the scope of application, availability, maintenance and implementation of national treatment are generally consistent.
(6) National treatment clauses of other relevant agreements:
The Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures stipulates: "No member shall take any trade-related investment measures inconsistent with the national treatment and the quantitative restrictions on the general prohibition of use in GATT (1994) without prejudice to other rights and obligations of GATT (1994)." Not all trade-related investment measures are included in the agreement, only four restrictive requirements for foreign investors, such as local composition requirements, trade (foreign exchange) balance requirements, domestic sales requirements and import foreign exchange restrictions, are included in the prohibition list. These measures distort the trade pattern and investment flow to a certain extent, which are inconsistent with the principle of national treatment and the principle of eliminating import quantity restrictions in GATT 1994, and should be banned. However, there are some special provisions for developing countries, such as all exceptions in GATT 1994, which can be applied to the agreement according to specific circumstances; Developing countries can enjoy special preferential treatment; Developed countries and developing China countries have stipulated different transition periods.
Because of its importance and complexity, the trade of organized commodities and agricultural products has long been outside the general principles of GATT. The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, which was negotiated in Uruguay Round, lists the integration of textile and clothing trade as the purpose of the basic principles of GATT. Provisions: Take anti-dumping, countervailing and intellectual property protection measures to ensure that textile and clothing trade is conducted under fair and equal trade conditions. In addition, "avoid discrimination against the textile and clothing sectors when formulating general trade policies". In the agricultural agreement, members agreed to reach specific commitments in terms of market access and domestic support, that is, to open the market to a certain extent and reduce domestic support for agriculture. Because domestic support and market access restrictions have seriously distorted the trade pattern. The contents of the two agreements involve the improvement of national treatment in some aspects, but in the process of realizing the principle of national treatment in agricultural products trade, continuous efforts are still needed.
(3) Trade among WTO members is mutually beneficial.
The WTO management agreement is based on the principle of comprehensive balance of rights and obligations, and is obtained through mutual benefit and the promise of opening up the market. Mutual benefit is a basic requirement in the process of multilateral trade negotiations and the establishment of WTO code of conduct. Although the "principle of reciprocal trade" is not clearly stipulated in GATT and WTO agreements, in practice, only the concession arrangement of equality and mutual benefit can reach an agreement among members.
The principle of reciprocity in the WTO is mainly embodied in the following forms:
First, through multilateral trade negotiations, reduce tariff or non-tariff measures, open the domestic market to other members on an equal footing, and strive for opportunities for domestic products or services to enter other members' markets, which is called "returning the peach to the lee".
Second, when a country or region applies to join the WTO, because the new member can enjoy the preferential treatment of opening the market that all the old members have achieved in the past, the old members will unanimously demand that the new member must pay the "entrance fee"-opening the market of the goods or services of the applicant country in accordance with the existing WTO agreements and agreements. In reality, after a country or region joins the WTO, its foreign trade and economic cooperation system conforms to the provisions of GATT 1994, the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights, and it also needs to open its own goods and services market.
Third, reciprocal trade is the main tool for a member to realize economic and trade cooperation with other members in multilateral trade negotiations and trade liberalization. In all fields within the WTO system, no member can be the biggest beneficiary or the biggest victim. The history of GATT and WTO fully shows that the benefits of multilateral trade liberalization for a member are far greater than those of a country's unilateral trade liberalization. Because when a country unilaterally decides to liberalize the trade of tariff and non-tariff goods and open the service market, its benefits mainly depend on the reaction of other trading partners to this liberalization reform. If the response is good, it is to give preferential treatment to other places, which has great benefits; On the contrary, it is smaller. On the contrary, under the WTO system, because a member's trade liberalization is carried out within the scope of obtaining the existing 135 member's commitment to open the market, it is natural that the actual benefits brought by this trade liberalization reform are guaranteed by the WTO mechanism, rather than being as uncertain as the benefits of unilateral or bilateral trade liberalization. Therefore, multilateral trade liberalization is superior to unilateral trade liberalization, especially for developing countries like China.
Market access: gradually realize greater trade liberalization through negotiations.
An important goal of the WTO is to promote the formation of an open trading system, which is based on rules that encourage fair competition among manufacturers in different countries, rather than determining the distribution of trade benefits by managing trade flows.
A series of WTO agreements or agreements require members to gradually realize trade liberalization in stages, so as to expand the level of market access and promote reasonable competition and moderate protection in the market. Mainly manifested in:
1."GATT1994" requires member countries to gradually open their markets.
Article 2 of GATT 1994 "Schedule of Concessions" and Article 1 1 "General Elimination of Quantitative Restrictions" require its members to reduce tariffs and eliminate quantitative restrictions on imports, so as to allow foreign goods to enter the domestic market and compete with domestic products. These commitments of gradual opening-up are binding and implemented through the principle of non-discriminatory trade. A member must promise not to arbitrarily raise tariffs beyond the bound level unless it is allowed by the WTO. For example, if a country promises to reduce the weighted average level of its import tariff to 12%, its tariff level cannot be higher than 12% for a certain period of time, unless the WTO thinks that the country's special circumstances make it unable to fulfill its obligations, it can authorize it to do so according to relevant agreements or terms.
2. Other goods trade agreements also require member countries to gradually open their markets.
The Agreement on Agriculture requires members to tarifficate the existing quantitative restrictions on agricultural products trade (such as quotas and licenses), and promises not to use non-tariff measures to manage agricultural products trade, and gradually reduce the tariff level, so that agricultural products trade will be more determined by the relationship between supply and demand in domestic and foreign markets and will not cause excessive distortion of agricultural products prices. For example, the rice market in Japan has long been distorted by high tariffs and import quantity restrictions, making its average price level three to five times higher than that in the international market. "Agreement on Textiles and Clothing" requires developed countries to cancel the import quota restrictions of textiles and clothing by stages within 10 year, and protect the domestic textile and clothing industry with tariffs, so as to avoid excessive protection of the domestic textile and clothing trade market and give investors a more transparent and stable market environment, rather than the uncertainty brought by excessive government intervention in determining their investment behavior.
The Import License Agreement requires members not to use licenses to manage trade as much as possible. If the authorization allows the use, try to manage it in a way that can expand rather than narrow the trade in this field. If an open general license is adopted, the importer can import only by applying for registration with the government-designated department, without going through multiple checkpoints for approval.
The Customs Valuation Agreement requires that the value of imported goods should be determined fairly, reasonably and objectively, and the value or classification of goods should not be determined arbitrarily or discriminatively. So that commodity from all countries can compete in import countries at reasonable tax rates. Other commodity trade agreements also make countries' commitments to open their markets more predictable and less arbitrary. Such as the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Agreement on Animal and Plant Quarantine and the Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures.
3. The General Agreement on Trade in Services requires member countries to gradually open their service markets.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services requires members to gradually open their respective service markets through phased negotiations on the basis of the principle of non-discrimination, so as to promote competition between services and service providers and reduce distortions in service trade and investment. These commitments to gradually open the market by stages involve commercial services, finance, telecommunications, distribution, tourism, education, transportation, medical and health care buildings, environment, entertainment and other service fields, and are the tertiary industry in China. This will undoubtedly play a positive role in promoting the development of international service trade.
4. Other basic principles conducive to expanding market access
Members can also use the dispute settlement mechanism to solve disputes and frictions in the open market and actively protect themselves; At the same time, the transparency of the trading system is also conducive to expanding market access.
(5) Promote fair competition and trade.
The WTO believes that countries should not compete by unfair trade means when developing foreign trade, especially by dumping and subsidizing their own goods. Articles 6 and 16 of GATT 1994 stipulate that when a contracting party exports its domestic products by dumping or subsidizing, which causes substantial damage to the domestic industries of the importing country or threat of material injury, the injured importing country may levy anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties to protect its domestic industries. The so-called dumping refers to the export of domestic goods at lower than normal prices or unreasonably low prices; Subsidies refer to direct or indirect bonuses or subsidies obtained by export commodities in the process of production, manufacturing, processing, trade and export. No matter whether such bonuses and subsidies come from the government or trade associations, countervailing duties should be levied. Nevertheless, the injured importing countries should also follow certain procedures when collecting anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties. The conditions for levying anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties must be that there is dumping or subsidy, and the dumping or subsidy has caused substantial damage to the domestic industry of the importing country or threat of material injury, before levying anti-dumping duties or countervailing duties that do not exceed the dumping difference or subsidy amount. At the same time, the WTO also opposes the abuse of anti-dumping and countervailing by countries in order to achieve the purpose of protectionism.
In addition to the above-mentioned Article 6 and Article 16, the government of a member may, under the authorization of the WTO, take measures to maintain fair competition, balance international payments or maintain market competition order for the purpose of public health and national security. For example, the purpose of the agricultural agreement is to provide a higher degree of fairness for agricultural trade; Intellectual property agreement will improve the competitive conditions of intellectual achievements and inventions; The General Agreement on Trade in Services will further standardize the competitive environment of international trade in services and promote the healthy development of trade in services.
(6) Encourage development and economic reform.
The multilateral trading system attaches great importance to development and recognizes the flexibility and special needs of developing countries, especially the least developed countries. The WTO has followed the relevant agreements and regulations of GATT on preferential treatment for developing countries and least developed countries, and perfected them in the relevant agreements, agreements or regulations of the WTO.
More than 80% of the members of the WTO are developing countries and countries with economies in transition, among which more than 60 developing countries have independently implemented trade liberalization reforms, which have played a positive role in the stability and development of the multilateral trading system and promoted the development of their own economies (see Chapter 8 on WTO and developing countries for details).
(seven) the principle of transparency of trade policies and regulations.
The principle of transparency is an important principle of the WTO, which is embodied in the main agreements and agreements of the WTO. According to this principle, WTO members need to declare the effective implementation of existing trade policies and regulations:
(1) Customs regulations. That is, the provisions of the customs on the classification and valuation methods of products, the tariff rates and other fees levied by the customs on import and export goods;
(2) Laws and administrative regulations on import and export management;
(3) Domestic taxes, regulations and rules on the collection of import and export commodities;
(4) Laws and regulations on inspection and quarantine of import and export commodities;
(5) General laws and regulations on the administration of import and export goods and their payment of foreign exchange;
(6) Legislation and regulations on the utilization of foreign capital;
(7) laws and regulations on intellectual property protection;
(8) Laws and regulations of export processing zones, free trade zones, border trade zones and special economic zones;
Laws and regulations on trade in services;
(10) arbitration clause;
(1 1) Existing bilateral or multilateral agreements and agreements that affect trade policies signed by member governments and their institutions;
(12) Other domestic legislation or administrative rules that affect trade behavior.
The promulgation of the above rules should be rapid, but if it will hinder the implementation of laws and regulations, violate the interests of the public, or harm the interests of enterprises, it is not required to be published.
The principle of transparency stipulates that all members shall implement the above-mentioned relevant laws, regulations, judgments and decisions fairly, reasonably and uniformly. Unity requires that the relevant laws and regulations governing trade in member countries should not be treated differently, that is, the central government uniformly promulgates relevant policies and regulations, and the laws and regulations promulgated by local governments on the above matters must not contradict the central government. Except for special administrative regions and local governments authorized by the central government. Justice and rationality require members to implement the principle of non-discrimination in the implementation of laws and regulations.
The principle of transparency also stipulates that in view of the necessity of inspecting and correcting customs administrative acts, members are required to retain or establish judicial, arbitration or administrative institutions and procedures as soon as possible. This court or procedure is independent of the agency responsible for administrative enforcement. Except that the importer may appeal to a higher court or institution within the prescribed appeal period, the award shall be executed by these institutions.
The principle of transparency plays a very important role in realizing fair trade and competition.