Abstract
The implementation of a multilateral trade and payments system was facilitated by the establishment of the Fund and the Bank. It proved more difficult to reach agreement on the reduction of customs duties and the abolition of quantitative restrictions and discriminations, partly owing to the fact that these matters were more closely bound up with balance-of-payments equilibrium. In order to avoid a recurrence of the protectionism of the 1930s vigorous efforts were necessary to dismantle these various kinds of trade barriers. This chapter is devoted to the action taken in this respect within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Paradoxe que le G.A.T.T., cette organisation internationale qui n’en est pas une, qui n’a pour fondement juridique qu’un simple accord en forme simplifiée, qui n’a jamais été ratifiée par les Etats, qui n’était à l’origine que provisoire.
T. Flory
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
A. GATT Publications
The present text of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is reproduced in Volume 4 of Basic instruments and selected documents (Geneva, March 1969). Earlier versions of the Agreement are given in Volume 1, the revised Volume 1 and Volume 3. Volume 2 contains the resolutions, statements and reports relating to conferences and committee meetings from 1948 to early 1952. Basic instruments and selected documents. Supplements contain similar documents subsequent to 1952. Beginning with the fourteenth supplement (July 1966), an index to the contents of Volumes 1 to 4 and the supplements is provided.
An Analytical index (3rd ed., April 1970) contains notes on the drafting, interpretation and application of the General Agreement. In October 1971 the Status of legal instruments was published in loose-leaf form; this describes the legal instruments drawn up by the contracting parties or under their auspices.
Successive reports on activities from January 1948 to December 1951 appeared under the following titles: The attack on trade barriers. A progress report on the operation of the General Agreement from January 1948 to August 1949 (September 1949); Liberating world trade. Second report on the operation of the General Agreement (June 1950); GATT in action. Third report on the operation of the General Agreement (February 1952).
From 1952 to 1958 annual reports, issued under the title International trade 195-,consisted of three parts, devoted respectively to a survey of world trade, trade policy and the activity of the contracting parties. In 1957, however, the first part was not dealt with and the title was accordingly changed to Commercial policy 1957,including a report on recent activities of the contracting parties. The subject matter of this first part was discussed in the subsequent annual report, International trade 1957–1958. From 1959 onwards, the annual reports relate solely to the subject matter of the former Part 1 (changes in the structure of world trade). Since the 1973 report, the title has been International trade 19-/19—.
Publications on the operation of GATT include The activities of GATT for 1959/60, 1960/61, 1961/62, 1964/65, 1967/8. In June 1970 the title was changed to GATT activities 197-. This publication reports the most important events (detailed data being given in the supplements referred to above). The principal aspects of the member countries’ commercial policy (formerly contained in Part 2 of International trade) were at first published in the half-yearly Developments in commercial policy (1960–62) and subsequently in Certification of changes to schedules to the GATT,the latest edition of which was published in October 1974;Basic documentation for tariff study (July 1970) contains detailed information on the level of post-Kennedy-Round duties.
Since December 1964, the International Trade Centre has issued a quarterly review, Forum,and a large number of other publications on marketing and export promotion.
Among the special reports published by GATT, mention should be made of the Haberler Report: Trends in international trade. A report by a panel of experts ( Geneva, October 1958 ). This contains detailed study of the structure of world trade and an examination of the repercussions of the economic policies of industrial countries (such as agricultural protectionism) on non-industrialized countries.
Restrictive business practices (Geneva, May 1959): “… concerning any intergovernmental agreements which have been proposed or prepared, with a view to preventing or checking the harmful effects of restrictive business practices in international trade”. Antidumping and countervailing duties (Geneva, July 1958): “… an extensive analysis of the situation in the countries which do make use of their anti-dumping and countervailing provisions, namely: Australia, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Union of South Africa, Federation of Rhodesia-Nyasaland, Sweden, United States”. Anti-dumping and countervailing duties (Geneva, March 1961), provides for further investigation in this field; see also: Agreement on implementation of Article 6 (Anti-Dumping Code) (Geneva 1969).
On the Kennedy Round, see Legal instruments embodying the results of the 1964–67 tariff conference (Geneva, June 1967), five volumes; and on the Tokyo Round, Geneva (1979) Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Geneva, 1979), four volumes.
GATT also makes available offprints of the numerous addresses delivered by its Director Generals E. Wyndham White and O. Long.
The results of some of the studies undertaken by the Secretariat of the GATT on current issues in the field of international trade are published in GATT studies in international trade. At the time of writing, seven titles are available: Industrial pollution control and international trade (July 1971), Japan’s economic expansion and foreign trade (July 1971), Trends in United States merchandize trade, 1953–1970 (July 1972), Specific duties, inflation and floating currencies (November 1977), Trade liberalization, protectionism and interdependence (November 1977); Adjustment, trade and growth in developed and developing countries (1978) and Network of world trade by areas and commodity classes 1955–76 (1978).
B. Other Publications
On the ITO and the origins of GATT: W.A. Brown, The United States and the restoration of world trade. An analysis and appraisal of the ITO Charter and the GATT ( Washington, The Brookings Institution, 1950 ).
General surveys: G. Curzon, Multilateral commercial diplomacy. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and its impact on national commercial policies and techniques (New York, Praeger, 1966); T. Flory, Le GATT. Droit international et commerce mondial (Paris, Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1968); K. Kock, International trade policy and the GATT 1947–67 (Stockholm, Almqvist & Wicksell, 1969);J.W. Evans, “The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade”, in The global partnership. International agencies and economic development,(ed. R.N. Gardner and M.F. Millikan, New York, Praeger, 1968); K.W. Dam, The GATT law and international economic organization (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1970); R.M. Stern, Tariffs and other measures of trade control. Survey of recent development, The Journal of Economic Literature,September 1973. R.E. Hudec, The GATT legal system and world diplomacy (New York, Praeger, 1975); U. Frantz, 25 Jahre Welthandelspolitik. Ziele und Ergebnisse des Allgemeinen Zoll-und Handelsabkommen (GATT) von 1948–1973 (Berlin, Duncker & Hum-blot, 1975); A. Shonfield et ai, International economic relations of the Western World 1959–1971. Volume 1: Policies and trade (London, Oxford University Press, 1976), Parts 2 and 3.
For a detailed discussion of the escape clauses and their application: I.B. Kravis, Domestic interests and international obligations. Safeguards in international trade organizations (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, 1963), and of the most-favoured-nation clause: R. Zinser, Das GATT und die Meistbegünstigung. Das Kernstück des GATT und seine Bedeutung für die internationalen Wirtschaftsbeziehungen (Baden-Baden, August Lutseyer, 1962). See also H.G. Johnson, The world economy at the crossroads. A survey of current problems of money, trade and economic development (Oxford, Clarendon, 1965): Chapter 4 examines the evolution of GATT, criticizes the application of the principle of non-discrimination (“… discrimination among foreign countries can be effected in a nominally `non-discrimination’ fashion by levying tariffs at relatively high or low rates on the commodities of which particular countries are the dominant suppliers”).
B. Balassa, The “new protectionism” and the international economy, Journal of World Trade Law, Sept—Oct. 1978 considers the establishment of an international code of conduct for safeguard measures under Article 19. See also: A. MacBean, How to repair the “safety net” of the international trading system, The World Economy, January 1978. GATT Plus — A proposal for trade reform, with the text of the General Agreement. Report of the Special Advisory Panel to the Trade Committee of the Atlantic Council (New York, Praeger, 1976) contains recommendations for a new code of trade liberalization. J.H. Jackson, The crumbling institutions of the liberal trade system, Journal of World Trade Law, March—April 1978; idem, Governmental disputes in international trade relations: a proposal in the context of GATT, Journal of World Trade Law, Jan—Feb. 1979 and H. Mayrzedt, Erfahrungen mit der multilateralen Wirtschaftsdiplomatie zwischen westlichen Industriestaaten, Aussenwirtschaft, September 1978.
On trade restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons: F. Roessler, Selective balanceof-payments adjustment measures affecting trade. The roles of the GATT and the IMF, Journal of World Trade Law, Sept—Oct. 1975, and F. Bergsten, Reforming the GATT: the use of trade measures for balance of payments purposes, Journal of International Economics, Jan—Feb. 1977. On “voluntary” trade restrictions; T. Murray et al., Alternative forms of protection against market disruption, Kyklos, 1978 No. 4. See also The United States and international markets (eds. R. Hawkins and I. Walter, Lexington, Lexington, 1972); L. Perez, Export subsidies in developing countries and the GATT, Journal of World Trade Law, Nov.—Dec. 1976; T. Murray and I. Walter, Quantitative restrictions, developing countries and GATT, Journal of World Trade Law, Sept.—Oct. 1977; W.A. Wares, The theory of dumping and American commercial policy (Lexington, Lexington, 1977).
For a discussion of GATT’s attitude to regional agreements, see G. Patterson, Discrimination in international trade. The policy issues 1945–1965 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1966). In this connection: J.J. Allen, The European Common Market and the GATT (University Press of Washington, Washington, 1960) and New trade strategy for the world economy (ed. H.G. Johnson, London, Allen & Unwin, 1969). The latter examines the options for world trade policy after the Kennedy Round and deals in particular with the proposal for a multilateral free-trade association initiated by the North Atlantic countries (North Atlantic Free Trade Association); with the exception of the introduction, the studies in this volume were first published as pamphlets (sponsored by the Atlantic Trade Study).
See also: P. Lortie, Economic integration and the law of GATT (New York, Praeger, 1975), M. Waelbroeck, Effect of GATT within the legal order of the EEC, Journal of World Trade Law, Nov.—Dec. 1976. On generalized preferences: H.G. Espielle, GATT accommodating generalized preferences, Journal of World Trade Law, July—Aug. 1974.
On the Kennedy Round: H.G. Johnson, “The Kennedy Round”, The World today, August 1967; UNCTAD, The Kennedy Round estimated effects on tariff barriers (New York 1968); and V. Curzon, Options after the Kennedy Round, in New trade strategy for the world economy, op. cit.; G.P. Casadio, Transatlantic trade. USA—EEC confrontation in the GATT negotiations (Westmead, Saxon House, 1973) translation of the Italian edition of 1971.
On the Tokyo round: S. Golt, The GATT negotiations 1973–1975. A guide to the issues (Washington, National Planning Association, 1974); J. Poelmans-Kirschen, Le Nixon round; Etape vers une nouvelle organisation du commerce international, Cahiers Économiques de Bruxelles, 1974 No. 63. H.G. Johnson, Trade negotiations and the new international monetary system (Geneva, Graduate Institute of International Studies, 1976); P.E. Ibrahim, Developing countries and the Tokyo round, Journal of World Trade Law, Jan.—Feb. 1978; T.K. Warley, What chance has agriculture in the Tokyo round?, The World Economy, 1978 No. 2; J. Ahmad, Tokyo rounds of trade negotiations and the generalized system of preferences, The Economic Journal, June 1978.
With respect to state-trading countries: K.R. Gupta, GATT and state trading, Economia Intemazionale, February 1967; J. Wilczynski, The economics and policies of East-West trade (London, Macmillan, 1969); M. Kostecki, Hungary and GATT, Journal of World Trade Law, July—Aug. 1974; J.M. Reuland, GATT and state trading countries, Journal of World Trade Law, May—June 1975; R. Baban, State trading and the GATT, Journal of World Trade Law, July—Aug. 1977.
C. The Customs Cooperation Council
While GATT is concerned with problems of economic policy, the Customs’ Cooperation Council (CCC) is a technical body for the study of customs problems. The convention establishing the CCC was signed in Brussel on 15 December 1950 and came into force on 4 November 1952. Its main purpose is to assemble the executive machinery for the interpretation and application of two other conventions signed also on 15 December 1950 — the Convention on Nomenclature for the Classification of Goods in Customs Tariffs and the Convention on the Valuation of Goods for Customs Purposes.
The first convention, which entered into force on 11 September 1959, set up the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature (BTN). The tariffs of many countries and regional organizations (including the EEC and EFTA) are based on the BTN. The aim of the second convention, which came into force on 28 July 1953, is to achieve maximum uniformity in the valuation of goods for customs purposes.
See In brief… The Customs Cooperation Council (Brussels, November 1969), published by the CCC, and an article by its secretary-general, G. Annez de Taboada, “CCC: oiling the wheels of trade”, Forum,supplement (UNCTAD—GATT), April 1969.
The extracts quoted are from: P. Lortie, op. cit.; K.W. Dam, op. cit.;J.H. Jackson, The crumbling institutions of the liberal trade system, art. cit.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1980 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers bv, The Hague
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Meerhaeghe, M.A.G. (1980). The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. In: A Handbook of International Economic Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8860-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8860-6_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-8862-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-8860-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive