3. Whenever administratively possible, Members shall permit required marks of origin to be imposed at the time of importation.

4. The laws and regulations of the Members relating to the marking of imported products shall be such as to permit compliance without seriously damaging the products, or materially reducing their value, or unreasonably increasing their cost.

5. Members shall exempt from their marking requirements the following products:

a. Products incapable of being marked;

b. Products which cannot be marked except at unreasonable expense;

c. Products in transit and their containers;

d. Products in bond and their containers;

e. Samples and products without commercial value and their containers;

f. Containers of properly marked products of a type not ordinarily imported and sold at retail in sealed containers;

g. Products of a type ordinarily imported and sold at retail in sealed containers, provided such containers are properly marked; h. Products over 20 years old and their containers;

i. Products intended for the personal use of the importer or his family or for use in his factory or place of business, and not intended for sale, and the containers of such products;

j. Crude substances and raw materials; and also the containers of such products if the products are intended for use by the person for whom the importation is made, or for his account in manufacturing new and different products.

6. No special duty or penalty shall be imposed by any Member for failure to comply with the marking requirements prior to importation unless corrective marking has been unreasonably delayed or false marks have been intentionally affixed or the required marking has been intentionally omitted.

Article 15. Publication and Administration of Trade RegulationsAdvance Notice of Restrictive Regulations

1. Laws, regulations, decisions of judicial authorities and administrative rulings of general application made effective by any Member, pertaining to the classification or valuation of products for customs purposes, or to rates of duty, taxes or other charges, or to requirements, restrictions or prohibitions on imports or exports or on the transfer of payments therefor, or affecting their sale or distribution, or affecting their warehousing, inspection, exhibition, processing,

mixing or other use, shall be published promptly in such a manner as to enable traders and governments to become acquainted with them. Agreements in force between the government or a governmental agency of any Member country and the government or a governmental agency of any other country affecting international trade policy shall also be published. Copies of such laws, regulations, decisions, rulings and agreements shall be communicated promptly to the Organization. This paragraph shall not require any Member to publish administrative rulings which would disclose confidential information, impede law enforcement, or otherwise be inimical to the public interest.

2. Members shall administer in a uniform, impartial and reasonable manner all laws, regulations, decisions and rulings of the kind described in paragraph 1 of this Article. Moreover, they undertake to maintain, or to establish as soon as practicable, for the review and correction of administrative action relating to customs matters, judicial or administrative tribunals which are in fact independent of the agencies entrusted with administrative enforcement. Finally, each Member will enforce all measures necessary to suppress and prevent the exaction of charges and the prescription of requirements in respect of international trade which are not provided for in its published laws or regulations.

3. No law, regulation, decision or ruling of any Member effecting an advance in a rate of import or export duty or other charge under an established and uniform practice, or imposing a new or more burdensome requirement, restriction or prohibition on imports or exports or on the transfer of payments therefor, shall, as a general rule, be applied to products of any other Member already en route at the time of publication thereof in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article: Provided, That if any Member customarily exempts from such new or increased obligations products entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, or cleared for export, during a period of thirty days after the date of such publication, such practice shall be considered full compliance with this paragraph. The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to antidumping or countervailing duties.

Article 16. Information, Statistics and Trade Terminology

1. Members agree to make available promptly to the Organization, in as detailed and accurate a manner as practicable, such statistics relating to their foreign trade as the Organization deems necessary in connection with the fulfillment of its functions, including as the minimum essential to the effective discharge of its duties data on the following subjects:

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a. Exports and imports of merchandise, distinguishing in so far as possible the movement of transit trade, and taking into account the desirability of uniformity in international trade statistics;

b. Governmental revenue from import and export duties and from other taxes imposed on products moving in international trade, and subsidy payments affecting such trade.

2. Statistics of exports and imports of merchandise furnished to the Organization shall so far as practicable be related to tariff classifications and shall be in such form as to reveal the operation of any restrictions on importation or exportation which are based upon or regulated in any manner by quantity or value, or by amounts of exchange made available.

3. Members agree to make available to the Organization, in as detailed and accurate a manner as practicable, such statistics on other economic subjects as the Organization deems necessary in connection with the fulfillment of its functions, and in particular statistics relating to balances of payments and prices, so far as the statistics are not being furnished to any other international organization having functions to which the statistics are more particularly related and from which the Organization can obtain the required information.

4. The Organization shall act as a center for the collection and exchange of statistical and other information relating to international trade, thus facilitating the preparation of studies designed to assist Members in developing policies which further the purposes of this Charter. The Organization shall make such data available to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and to other interested international organizations and shall, in cooperation with these organizations, seek to bring about improvements in the methods of collecting, analyzing and publishing economic statistics, particularly those relating to international trade, and to promote the international comparability of such statistics, including the international adoption of standard commodity classifications. The Organization shall also, in cooperation with such other organizations, compile and publish summary comparative statistics relating to the subjects specified in paragraph 1 of this Article.

5. Members agree to publish the statistics referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article promptly and in as much detail as practicable and to cooperate with the Organization in carrying out the objectives of paragraph 1 of this Article.

6. Members undertake to cooperate with the Organization in promoting the international adoption of standard definitions of terms customarily used in commercial practice, and in developing standards to which goods may be manufactured or graded. Members undertake to

cooperate in introducing such standards as are found to be desirable and practicable to encourage the freer movement of goods in international trade.

7. The Organization, in cooperation with the other organizations referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article, may adopt standards, nomenclature, terms and forms to be used in official documents and statistics of Members in the field of international trade. Such standards, nomenclature, terms or forms shall automatically become effective as to all Members of the Organization after notice has been given of their adoption by the Organization, except for such Members as may notify the Director General of rejection or reservations within the period stated in the notice, which period shall be not less than six months.

Article 17. Boycotts

No Member shall encourage, support or participate in boycotts or other campaigns which are designed to discourage, directly or indirectly, the consumption within its territory of products of other Member countries on grounds of origin, or the sale of products for consumption within other Member countries on grounds of destination. Moreover, each Member shall discourage, by such means as may be available to it, such campaigns by political entities within its jurisdiction.

SECTION B. TARIFFS AND TARIFF PREFERENCES

Article 18. Reduction of Tariffs and Elimination of Preferences

1. Each Member, other than a Member subject to the provisions of Article 28, shall, upon the request of any other Member or Members, enter into reciprocal and mutually advantageous negotiations with such other Member or Members directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs (or of margins of protection afforded by state trading) on imports and exports, and to the elimination of import tariff preferences. These negotiations shall proceed in accordance with the following rules:

a. Prior international commitments shall not be permitted to stand in the way of action with respect to tariff preferences.

b. All negotiated reductions in most-favored-nation import tariffs shall operate automatically to reduce or eliminate margins of preference, so that, in respect of any product on which the most-favorednation rate of duty is reduced or bound against increase pursuant to

the negotiations, the margin of preference which may apply to such product may not exceed the margin by which the most-favored-nation rate, as reduced or bound against increase, exceeds the preferential rate in force on July 1, 1939.

2. Each Member participating in negotiations pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article shall keep the Organization informed of the progress thereof and shall transmit to the Organization a copy of the agreement or agreements incorporating the results of such negotiations.

3. If any Member considers that any other Member has failed, within a reasonable period of time, to fulfill its obligations under paragraph 1 of this Article, such Member may refer the matter to the Organization, which shall investigate the matter and make appropriate recommendations to the Members concerned. The Organization, if it finds that a Member has, without sufficient justification, failed to negotiate with such complaining Member as required by paragraph 1 of this Article, may determine that the complaining Member, or in exceptional cases the Members of the Organization generally, shall, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 8, be entitled to withhold from the trade of the other Member any of the tariff reductions which the complaining Member, or the Members of the Organization generally, as the case may be, may have negotiated pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article, and if such reductions are in fact withheld, such other Member shall then be free, within sixty days after such action is taken, to withdraw from the Organization on sixty days' written notice to the Organization. The provisions of this paragraph shall operate in accordance with the provisions of Article 56.

SECTION C. QUANTITATIVE RESTRICTIONS

Article 19. General Elimination of Quantitative Restrictions

1. Except as otherwise provided elsewhere in this Chapter,1 no prohibition or restriction other than duties, taxes or other charges, whether made effective through quotas, licenses or other measures, shall be imposed or maintained by any Member country on the importation of any product of any other Member country, or on the exportation, or sale for export, of any product destined for any other Member country.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not extend to the following:

1

1 See paragraph 2 of Article 19; Article 20; paragraph 1 of Article 22; and Article 29.