Industrial design rights in the European Union of industrial design rights is required by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS, Arts. 25 & 26), to which the European Union is a party. The Regulation on Community designs provides for the recognition of the priority date of an application for design right registration in a country which is either a member of the World Trade Organization or a party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. On 1 January 2008, the European Union became a party to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs
Labour standards in the World Trade Organization to the WTO Secretariat who issue a report which is then examined by the General Council sitting as the Trade Policy Review Body. Government policies are reviewed in relation to the "functioning of the multilateral trading system" so as to encourage adherence to commitments under the agreements, and greater transparency. At present, the reviews are focusing solely upon the issue of trade liberalisation, and whether a member's policies support this. Although free trade is an important issue, it is not the overall objective of the multilateral trading system and should not be examined to the exclusion of all else. The