Preview

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Years: From Havana to Marrakesh

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1498 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Years: From Havana to Marrakesh
The GATT years: from Havana to Marrakesh
The creation of WTO marked a big and important change in the international trade and represented one of the biggest reforms after the Second World War.It aimed to regulate the international trade in the most suitable and fair manner for all the countries members.
Much of the history of those 47 years was written in Geneva. But it also traces a journey that spanned the continents, from that hesitant start in 1948 in Havana (Cuba), via Annecy (France), Torquay (UK), Tokyo (Japan), Punta del Este (Uruguay), Montreal (Canada), Brussels (Belgium) and finally to Marrakesh (Morocco) in 1994. During that period, the trading system came under GATT, salvaged from the aborted attempt to create the ITO. GATT helped establish a strong and prosperous multilateral trading system that became more and more liberal through rounds of trade negotiations. But by the 1980s the system needed a thorough overhaul. This led to the Uruguay Round, and ultimately to the WTO.

GATT: ‘provisional’ for almost half a century

From 1948 to 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided the rules for much of world trade and presided over periods that saw some of the highest growth rates in international commerce. It seemed well-established, but throughout those 47 years, it was a provisional agreement and organization.

The original intention was to create a third institution to handle the trade side of international economic cooperation, joining the two “Bretton Woods” institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Over 50 countries participated in negotiations to create an International Trade Organization (ITO) as a specialized agency of the United Nations. The draft ITO Charter was ambitious. It extended beyond world trade disciplines, to include rules on employment, commodity agreements, restrictive business practices, international investment, and services. The aim was to create the ITO at a UN



Bibliography: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact4_e.htm

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    WTO over took GATT (General agreement on tariff and trades) in Uruguay Round of GATT.…

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fugitive Denim

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are a number of ways of looking at the World Trade Organization. It is an organization for trade opening. It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. The WTO was born out of negotiations, and everything the WTO does is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the WTO’s current work comes from the 1986–94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established and incorporated in January 1st 1995 at the amendment of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) in 1994 with the aim of regulating international trade. The creation of this organization clearly underscored the acceptance and commitment of trade liberalization by most of the international communities. Upon signing and ratifying the WTO Agreement, each member state of the WTO committed itself through a series of agreements to ultimately liberalize its trade in goods, services and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights. Each member state signed the WTO Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes as well as the Agreement relating to the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). This action required member states to periodically subject their national trade and economic policies for examination to ensure that their respective mandates are in keeping with the WTO's commitments. (Strategic Plan of the Foreign Trade Division 2002).…

    • 4025 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sime Darby Plantation Sdn

    • 1670 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Although negotiations undertaken for the ITO proved unsuccessful, the United States proposed that the commercial policy provisions that were originally be included in the ITO agreements should be temporarily incorporated into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). As free market policies continued to be the dominant political force concerning trade around the world, a host of new markets opened…

    • 1670 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. The organization officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. WTO has 159 members on 2 March 2013…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wto and Developing Countries

    • 4781 Words
    • 20 Pages

    World Trade Organization (WTO), international body that promotes and enforces the provisions of trade laws and regulations. The World Trade Organization has the authority to administer and police new and existing free trade agreements, to oversee world trade practices, and to settle trade disputes among member states. The WTO was established in 1994 when the members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a treaty and international trade organization, signed a new trade pact. The WTO was created to replace GATT.…

    • 4781 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    But economists conclude that it was worth the trouble, basically all issues related to trade were discussed in these negotiations, GATT’s articles were reviewed and most importantly the Final Act concluding the Uruguay Round and officially establishing the WTO regime was signed during the April 1994 ministerial meeting at Marrakesh, Morocco, and hence is known as the Marrakesh Agreement.…

    • 2596 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    International Law Report

    • 2477 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Governements had the wish of creating the International Trade Organization (ITO) but they failed in negociations. The GATT has…

    • 2477 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. The World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. One of the youngest of the international organizations, the WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in the wake of the Second World War. The World Trade Organization exists to ensure that trade between nations flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. It provides and regulates the legal issues which governs world trade now .…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wto and Nepal

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The WTO began life on 1 January 1995, but its trading system is half a century older. Since 1948, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had provided the rules for the system. (The second WTO ministerial meeting, held in Geneva in May 1998, included a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the system.)…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    World Trade Organisations

    • 3635 Words
    • 15 Pages

    After the Second World War, many countries got down together to work on ways and means to promote international trade. The result was signing of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) by 23 countries in 1947. India was one of the founder members of GATT.…

    • 3635 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Trade Agreements

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages

    A treaty was created following the conclusion of World War II. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was a multilateral agreement regulating international trade. GATT was implemented to further regulate world trade to aide in the economic recovery following the war. According to its preamble, its purpose was the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis." It was negotiated during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization (ITO). GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1994. The original GATT text (GATT 1947) is still in effect under the WTO framework, subject to the modifications of GATT 1994. GATT's main objective was to reduce the barriers of international trade through the reduction of tariffs, quotas and subsidies. The General Agreement is applied "provisionally" by all contracting parties. The original contracting parties, and also those former territories of Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom which, after attaining independence, acceded to the General Agreement under Article XXVI:5(c), apply the GATT under the Protocol of Provisional Application, the text of which is reproduced in this volume. Chile applies the General Agreement under a Special Protocol of September 1948. The contracting parties which have acceded since 1948 apply the General Agreement under their respective Protocols of Accession.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Role of Wto

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Created in 1994 as a result of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a global international trade organization that develops international commerce rules and mediates trade disputes among its members. The WTO brings together 148 members1 that participate in negotiations and binding commitments concerning the promotion of competition and the liberalization of international trade of goods and services.…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Previously, trade talks were conducted solely at multilateral platforms like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor the World Trade Organisation (WTO). But the need to deal with so many countries, and their many varied interests, led to such talks being protracted and contentious. The outcomes, in the opinion of many, were rather lame.…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    World Trade Organization

    • 8047 Words
    • 33 Pages

    „... the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. ”…

    • 8047 Words
    • 33 Pages
    Powerful Essays