part of International Economic Law, an expression that encompasses all legal and
institutional international arrangements on economic issues, since it only covers the
trade of goods and services, as well as measures specifically linked to it.
This report, consequently, deals with measures on the protection of personal data
set, which are allowed and barred by International Trade Law.
3 General Remarks
The history of International Trade Law can be traced, at least, to the Renaissance and
modern treaties of friendship, commerce and navigation. In the nineteenth century
the international economic and institutional systems were centred in European and,
particularly, British internal order. Most countries around the world held trade and
navigation treaties with Britain, as well as the United States, France and Germany,
i.a. A handful of intertwined networks of treaties that provide for most favoured
nation clauses and the general use of British institutions, especially the currency,
financial centre, navy and legal system, are the main features of international trade
governance before the World War I.
After a relatively chaotic inter-war period, most precisely during the last year of
the biggest international armed conflict in History, efforts were made to build an
international economic system. The Breton Woods Conference, held in 1944,
established two institutions: the International Monetary Fund, to control the value
of currencies and mitigate crises of the payments balance, and the International Bank
of Reconstruction and Development, to foster economic prosperity around the
World.
Though trade issues were not treated in this conference, the United Nations
promoted a conference in Havana, 1948, to discuss employment, investment and
trade. Meanwhile, by invitation of the United States, 18 countries sat in Geneva to
negotiate import tariffs in goods and also celebrate a General Agreement on Trade
and Tariffs (GATT) to secure the positive effects of the reduction of commercial
barriers. The Havana Charter failed to enter in force and the GATT became the most
important international trade treaty and was incorporated to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995. In its multi decade trajectory, it changed from a relatively
restricted club of trading nations to a worldwide, almost universal, trade system.
The GATT is an instrument to liberalize trade in goods as far as it produces
positive effects in terms of prosperity. In order to secure that international flow of
goods gets increasingly free and mutually beneficial, it lays down some operative
rules that (a) protect the negotiated measures from state bypass, (b) ratchet up the
liberalization benefits, and (c) grant non-discriminatory treatment to Contracting
Parties, notably:
1. National treatment (national like goods cannot, de jure or de facto, receive better
treatment than the goods originated from other Contracting Parties);
Data Protection in International Trade Law
481
institutional international arrangements on economic issues, since it only covers the
trade of goods and services, as well as measures specifically linked to it.
This report, consequently, deals with measures on the protection of personal data
set, which are allowed and barred by International Trade Law.
3 General Remarks
The history of International Trade Law can be traced, at least, to the Renaissance and
modern treaties of friendship, commerce and navigation. In the nineteenth century
the international economic and institutional systems were centred in European and,
particularly, British internal order. Most countries around the world held trade and
navigation treaties with Britain, as well as the United States, France and Germany,
i.a. A handful of intertwined networks of treaties that provide for most favoured
nation clauses and the general use of British institutions, especially the currency,
financial centre, navy and legal system, are the main features of international trade
governance before the World War I.
After a relatively chaotic inter-war period, most precisely during the last year of
the biggest international armed conflict in History, efforts were made to build an
international economic system. The Breton Woods Conference, held in 1944,
established two institutions: the International Monetary Fund, to control the value
of currencies and mitigate crises of the payments balance, and the International Bank
of Reconstruction and Development, to foster economic prosperity around the
World.
Though trade issues were not treated in this conference, the United Nations
promoted a conference in Havana, 1948, to discuss employment, investment and
trade. Meanwhile, by invitation of the United States, 18 countries sat in Geneva to
negotiate import tariffs in goods and also celebrate a General Agreement on Trade
and Tariffs (GATT) to secure the positive effects of the reduction of commercial
barriers. The Havana Charter failed to enter in force and the GATT became the most
important international trade treaty and was incorporated to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995. In its multi decade trajectory, it changed from a relatively
restricted club of trading nations to a worldwide, almost universal, trade system.
The GATT is an instrument to liberalize trade in goods as far as it produces
positive effects in terms of prosperity. In order to secure that international flow of
goods gets increasingly free and mutually beneficial, it lays down some operative
rules that (a) protect the negotiated measures from state bypass, (b) ratchet up the
liberalization benefits, and (c) grant non-discriminatory treatment to Contracting
Parties, notably:
1. National treatment (national like goods cannot, de jure or de facto, receive better
treatment than the goods originated from other Contracting Parties);
Data Protection in International Trade Law
481