National treatment
In accordance with the principle of national treatment , foreign and domestic providers must be treated equally. It is laid down in all trade agreements of the WTO , for trade in goods (Art. III GATT ), trade in services (Art. XVII GATS ) and for intellectual property (Art. III TRIPS ).
The principle of national treatment initially only ensures the equality of nationals and foreigners and the guarantee of minimum rights (principle of assimilation ). It does not overcome the differences between the national legal systems, but prevents a collision. The principle thus primarily has foreign legal content, but implies the validity of various independent national protective rights and thus the principle of territoriality .
In the context of the WTO, equality on the basis of national treatment only applies when the good (or service) comes onto the domestic market. So tariffs on imported goods (or services) are still WTO-compliant and do not violate national treatment.
Criticism of this regulation is particularly loud in connection with the GATS. As soon as a state allows services to be provided by domestic private companies, state expenses and grants must also be available to private providers from abroad. This can be problematic in particular in the field of universities, prisons, kindergartens, etc. So it is theoretically possible that US private universities require the same grants as a state German university. The government institutions then lack the money that goes to private providers. Only a few areas of state sovereignty are excluded from this . In many areas, however, it can happen that their provision is overridden by the state with the help of the GATS agreement. The trend towards the privatization of state tasks is accelerated and legally enshrined.
literature
- Stefan Winghardt: Community law prohibition of discrimination and national treatment principle in their meaning for copyright remuneration claims within the states of the European Union , Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2001, ISBN 383050134X
