Uruguay & Doha Round
The Uruguay Round
The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of Multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT), spanning from 1986-1994 and embracing 123 countries as “contracting parties”. This is the largest and the most complex round in history. The Round transformed the GATT into the World Trade Organization.
The main objectives of the Uruguay Round were: * To reduce agricultural subsidies * To put restrictions on foreign investment, and * To begin the process of opening trade in services like banking and insurance.
They also wanted to draft a code to deal with copyright violation and other forms of intellectual property rights.
The seeds of the Uruguay Round were sown in November 1982 at a ministerial meeting of GATT members in Geneva. Although the ministers intended to launch a major new negotiation, the conference stalled on agriculture and was widely regarded as a failure. In fact, the work programmed that the ministers agreed formed the basis for what was to become the Uruguay Round negotiating agenda. The Uruguay round was held in September 1986, in Punta del Este, Uruguay. They eventually accepted a negotiating agenda that covered virtually every outstanding trade policy issue. The talks were going to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles. It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed, and the ministers gave themselves four years to complete it. After the first round the ministers again met in Montreal, Canada in 1988 to discuss the progress of the round half way point but the talk ended in a deadlock until they met again in Geneva in following April.
Despite the difficulty, during the Montreal meeting, ministers did agree a package of early results. These included some concessions on market access for tropical products
The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of Multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT), spanning from 1986-1994 and embracing 123 countries as “contracting parties”. This is the largest and the most complex round in history. The Round transformed the GATT into the World Trade Organization.
The main objectives of the Uruguay Round were: * To reduce agricultural subsidies * To put restrictions on foreign investment, and * To begin the process of opening trade in services like banking and insurance.
They also wanted to draft a code to deal with copyright violation and other forms of intellectual property rights.
The seeds of the Uruguay Round were sown in November 1982 at a ministerial meeting of GATT members in Geneva. Although the ministers intended to launch a major new negotiation, the conference stalled on agriculture and was widely regarded as a failure. In fact, the work programmed that the ministers agreed formed the basis for what was to become the Uruguay Round negotiating agenda. The Uruguay round was held in September 1986, in Punta del Este, Uruguay. They eventually accepted a negotiating agenda that covered virtually every outstanding trade policy issue. The talks were going to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles. It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed, and the ministers gave themselves four years to complete it. After the first round the ministers again met in Montreal, Canada in 1988 to discuss the progress of the round half way point but the talk ended in a deadlock until they met again in Geneva in following April.
Despite the difficulty, during the Montreal meeting, ministers did agree a package of early results. These included some concessions on market access for tropical products