WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG62/N/1
6 August 1998
(98-3097)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:  English
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
AND THE REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA
Communication from the Czech Republic
The following communication, dated 29 June 1998, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of the Czech Republic with the request that it be circulated to the WTO Members.
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The delegation of the Czech Republic has the honour to transmit herewith, in accordance with
Article XXIV:7(a) of the General Agreement, the text of a Free Trade Agreement between the
Czech Republic and the Republic of Estonia with the Annexes and Protocols which form an integral
part thereof.1
The Free Trade Agreement was signed on 19 April 1996, was applied provisionally since
1 July 1996 and entered into force on 12 February 1998.
The Agreement aims at the progressive establishment of a free-trade area between the Parties
in the sense of Article XXIV of the General Agreement.  The free-trade area was established on the
date of its entry into force, when duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce were abolished
on substantially all the trade between the signatories.
The Free Trade Agreement between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Estonia also
contains provisions dealing with, inter alia , state aid, competition, public procurement and intellectual
property rights.  An evolutionary clause offers the possibility of extending the Agreement to areas not
covered by it.
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1 The text of the Agreement is circulated in document WT/REG62/1.