Need to Rationalise Preferences under Part IV of the GATT

Abstract

The elements of any system of international trade which might have been realised, had the status quo of 1967 been preserved, were discussed in Chapter 3. During the first twenty years of the GATT a rather limited number of discriminatory trade agreements were examined by the contracting parties. The review of these agreements led to the development of rules of procedure and jurisprudence which were flexible and relatively easy to apply.¹ In this sense the international trading system of the GATT had been preserved. In elaborating various plans for reforming the General Agreement—the Organisation for Trade Cooperation in 1955 and the new Part IV of the GATT in 1963—the revision of Article XXIV was not even considered.²