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Unit 1 Text Legal Principles of International Business Transactions International Business Transactions cover a wide range of activities, which are composed of international commercial agency, international sales of goods, international transfer of technology, international trade in service, international investment and international financial leasing and international financial guarantee.But, a number of simple yet fundamental legal principles run throughout all of these transactions. These legal principles, which ether derive from the international business organizations, conferences and multilateral bilateral international treaties, or come of the governmental regulations of international business transactions, have laid a basic foundation for the international business activities of our time. It is very important for a lawyer dealing with international legal affairs to have a close look at these principles: Transaction without discrimination This principle is known as that the government should treat all the foreign commercial corporations and local corporations equally. Generally speaking, the principle of transaction without discrimination may be further classified into two sub- principles: Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) and National Treatment. Most-Favored-Nation means the member countries should not normally discriminate the different transaction partners, that is to say, when a country has granted or will grant a foreigner a special favor (such as a lower customs duty rate for one of their products), he should have to do the same for other foreigners else. Most-Favored-Nation is one of the most important legal principles for the international business transactions so that it is not only Article 1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Article 2 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Article 4 of the Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), but also a priority in the Articles of Agreem