Legal Literacy- This article discusses one of the principles of non-discrimination ininternational trade law, namelyNational Treatment. This principle focuses on the obligation of equal treatment or non-discrimination by countries towards imported products compared to domestic products. Further discussion will cover the history, application, and impact of the principleNational Treatment. Because few discuss this concept concisely and thoroughly. It is hoped that this article can help as a relevant introduction for readers, especially from law students.

Understanding and History

UnderstandingNational Treatmentin Indonesian is 'country of origin treatment' and is included in the context of rights of origin.National Treatmentis a principle/norm related to the obligation of the state in normal circumstances/general, not to discriminate against imported products. Not to discriminate or differentiate between imported products compared to domestic products in the form of goods, services, and intellectual property rights (IPR) Violation of the principleNational Treatmentis generally caused by the application of additional taxes to certain products in general, but has a detrimental impact on imported products in particular. The form of loss experienced is generally a decrease in prices in a country, due to its gradually falling competitiveness. With the worst consequence, namely imported products can become worthless or become waste. The reason for the imposition of the additional tax is usually that the country/government wants to increase the competitiveness of domestic products compared to imported products. In short, the state wants to monopolize domestic products in the domestic market, but directly discriminates against imported products. Historically the principleNational Treatmentwas already contained in Article 1 of GATT 1947[1](different from the GATT rules in the WTO) as the predecessor organization of the WTO, with the termMostFavouredNational Treatment . In the current WTO rulesNational Treatmentspecifically separated from MFN as a separate principle. Technically quotingNational Treatmentcontained in three basic WTO rules, namely: Article III GATT[2], Article XVI GATS[3], Article III TRIPS[4]. Discussing the main differences betweenNational TreatmentandMost Favored Nation(MFN) as two non-discrimination principles that are almost similar in the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, namely:

1. MFN: imposition of duties/taxes on imported products at the beginning before they can be freely traded in a country, which applies generally to all trading partners of WTO members.
2. National Treatment: treatment of imported products after passing customs and becoming subject to national market regulations of a country.
3. Implementation and Issues