Tariff Negotiations And Renegotiations Under The Gatt And The Wto

Over the past seven decades, since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established in 1947, there has been a phenomenal increase in international trade in goods, largely due to sustained efforts by the world's main trading nations to reduce and eliminate tariff barriers in a multilaterally orchestrated manner. This publication reviews how the procedures and practices relating to tariff negotiations and renegotiations have evolved over this time. In particular, this new edition recounts how negotiations to expand the duty-free coverage of the Information Technology Agreement were concluded and provides an account of tariff renegotiations regarding successive enlargements of the European Union. It also covers tariff negotiations for the accession of a number of new members to the WTO, such as China and Russia. This book will be of particular interest to negotiators, members of government, trade ministries, economists and academics specialized in trade policy.

The procedures and practices to implement the provisions relating to tariff negotiations and renegotiations have evolved considerably since the GATT was established in 1947. The provisions themselves have undergone some changes in the last fifty-four years. Professor Hoda reviews the evolution of these provisions and of the procedures adopted and practices followed by the contracting parties to GATT 1947 and the Members of the WTO. He goes on to offer some conclusions and recommendations. This book will be of particular interest to negotiators including Geneva based delegations, members of government trade ministries, economists, and all academics who specialise in trade policy.

If ever there existed a benign-sounding organisation, it is surely the World Trade Organisation. The WTO is the successor to GATT. According to the WTO itself, its mission is "dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, the legal ground-rules for international commerce and for trade policy. The agreements have three main objectives: to help trade flow as freely as possible; to achieve further liberalisation gradually through negotiation; and to set up an impartial means of settling disputes". This book seeks to illuminate some key issues related to the WTO as well as present a detailed bibliography for future reference.

This book is part of a wider project on the economic logic behind the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This volume asks: What does the historical record indicate about the aims and objectives of the framers of the GATT? Where did the provisions of the GATT come from and how did they evolve through various international meetings and drafts? To what extent does the historical record provide support for one or more of the economic rationales for the GATT? This book examines the motivations and contributions of the two main framers of the GATT, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the smaller role of other countries. The framers desired a commercial agreement on trade practices as well as negotiated reductions in trade barriers. Both were sought as a way to expand international trade to promote world prosperity, restrict the use of discriminatory policies to reduce conflict over trade, and thereby establish economic foundations for maintaining world peace.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement covers international commerce in goods and services including measures that directly affect trade, such as import tariffs and quotas, and almost any type of internal measure with an impact on trade. Legal and Economic Principles of World Trade Law contributes to the analysis of the texts of World Trade Law in law and economics, reporting work done to identify improvements to the interpretation of the Agreement. It starts with background studies, the first summarizes The Genesis of the GATT, which highlights the negotiating history of the GATT 1947–8; the second introduces the economics of trade agreements. These are followed by two main studies. The first, authored by Bagwell, Staiger and Sykes, discusses legal and economic aspects of the GATT regulation of border policy instruments, such as import tariffs and import quotas. The second, written by Grossman, Horn and Mavroidis, focuses on the core provision for the regulation of domestic policy instruments - the National Treatment principles in Art. III GATT.