CLAUSE encyclopedia topics

CLAUSE - 5 reference results

most-favored-nation clause (MFN), provision in a commercial treaty binding the signatories to extend trading benefits equal to those accorded any third state. The clause ensures equal commercial opportunities, especially concerning import duties and freedom of investment. Generally reciprocal, in the late 19th and early 20th cent. unilateral MFN clauses were imposed on Asian nations by the more powerful Western countries (see Open Door). In the late 20th cent. tariff and trade agreements were negotiated simultaneously by all interested parties through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which ultimately resulted in the World Trade Organization. Such a wide exchange of concessions is intended to promote free trade, although there has been criticism of the principle of equal trading opportunities on the grounds that freer trade benefits the economically strongest countries. GATT members recognized in principle that the MFN rule should be relaxed to accommodate the needs of developing countries, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (est. 1964) has sought to extend preferential treatment to the exports of the developing countries. Another challenge to the MFN principle has been posed by regional trading groups such as the European Union, which have lowered or eliminated tariffs among the members while maintaining tariff walls between member nations and the rest of the world. In the 1990s continued MFN status for China sparked U.S. controversy because of its sales of sensitive military technology and its use of prison labor, and its MFN status was only made permanent in 2000. All of the former Soviet states, including Russia, were granted MFN status in 1992.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

grandfather clause

grandfather clause, provision in constitutions (adopted 1895-1910) of seven post-Reconstruction Southern states that exempted those persons who had been eligible to vote on Jan. 1, 1867, and their descendants from rigid economic and literacy requirements for voting. Since African Americans had not yet been enfranchised on that date, the provision effectively barred them from the polls while granting voting rights to poor and illiterate whites. Such provisions were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1915. The term grandfather clause is now applied to any kind of legal exemption based on prior status.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

grandfather clause

Constitutional provision enacted by seven Southern U.S. states (1895–1910) to deny suffrage to African American men. It exempted descendants of men who voted before 1867 from meeting new literacy and property requirements. Since African American men were not granted voting rights until passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, this clause effectively prevented them, and many impoverished and illiterate whites, from voting. The U.S. Supreme Court declared such clauses unconstitutional in 1915.

Learn more about grandfather clause with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

commerce clause

In the Constitution of the United States (Article I, section 8), the clause that authorizes Congress “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes.” It is the legal foundation of much of the U.S. government's regulatory authority. Seealso interstate commerce.

Learn more about commerce clause with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.