What is National treatment?
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It means treating foreigners and locals equally.
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Imported and locally-produced goods should be treated equally, at least after the foreign goods have entered the market.
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The same should apply to foreign and domestic services, and to foreign and local trademarks, copyrights and patents.
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This principle of “national treatment” is also found in all the three main WTO agreements (Article 3 of GATT, Article 17 of GATS and Article 3 of TRIPS).
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National treatment only applies once a product, service or item of intellectual property has entered the market.
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Therefore, charging customs duty on an import is not a violation of national treatment even if locally-produced products are not charged an equivalent tax.