Plurilateral agreement
Topic: International Trade Policy, WTO and Intellectual Property · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A plurilateral agreement is a WTO agreement that binds only the members that choose to sign it, not all members. It lets a willing group move ahead when there is no consensus among everyone. India argues that such deals cannot enter the WTO rulebook without the consensus of all members.
Example
India joined the Information Technology Agreement in 1997, but it is not in the Government Procurement Agreement. That is why India's public procurement preferences stay outside WTO rules. India, South Africa and others have also blocked the Investment Facilitation for Development text from being added to the WTO.
Don't confuse with
- Multilateral agreement: this binds every WTO member as part of a single package, such as the Agreement on Agriculture or TRIPS.
Related concepts
- Multilateral trade agreements
- Rule-based trading regime
- Multilateralism
- Non-discrimination principle
- Most-favoured-nation principle
- National treatment
- Exceptions to MFN
- Enabling clause
- Generalised System of Preferences
- Duty-free quota-free market access