Circumventing international trading agreements

Using legislation dated 1984, designated "US Foreign Sales Corporations (FSC), the USA has since 2000 defied a WTO ruling that that the FSC constitutes an illegal trading subsidy. In March 2004, the EU implemented countermeasures on a list of US products, raising customs duty of 5%, followed by automatic, monthly increases by 1% up to a ceiling of 17% to be reached on 1 March 2005, if compliance does not happened in-between.

1. Subverting international agreements

1. Distorting international trade by discriminatory preference agreements

1. Regulating world trade
2. Publicizing international trade agreements
3. Promoting policy coherence in world trade agreements
4. Increasing observance of multilateral trade agreements
5. Ensuring compatibility between multilateral environmental agreements and World Trade Organization rules

1. Limited observance of multilateral trade agreements
2. Fragmentation of the international trading system

1. Observance
2. Nonobservance
3. Limitedness
4. Disagreement