Gatt Conferences

7/29/2019 Gatt Conferences

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The beginning ...

Church House, London 1946. Theinaugural session of the PreparatoryCommittee charged with creating anInternational Trade Organization.


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The Havana conference, Cuba, December 1947

One of the purposes of this UN Conference on Trade and Employment wasto set up an International Trade Organization as a third world economicpillar alongside the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The attempt failed, but the negotiated trade rules, the General Agreementon Tariffs and Trade (GATT), did take effect from 1 January 1948.

The system that has become known as the multilateral trading system wasborn. For 47 years, GATT served as an ad hoc

international organization,

taking up some of the functions originally intended for the ITO. Here, Eric Wyndham-White, the conference executive secretary (secondfrom right on the rostrum), gives a press conference in Havana's Capitolioon 10 December 1947.

He was to become the first GATT Director-General, a post he held from1948 to 1968.

On his right is Matthew Gordon, Deputy Director of Public Information.

During the conference a simultaneous interpretation system was used. Theinterpreters' booths can be seen in the background.
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Second GATT meeting, 17 August 1948

Second meeting of the 22 contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs

and Trade (i.e. GATT members), Geneva, Switzerland.


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Second round of multilateral trade negotiationsAnnecy, France, 1949

The first round, with 23 countries meeting in Geneva in1947, led to the establishment of GATT itself, as well as

some 45,000 reductions in participants' customs duties.It was held in preparation for the Havana conference.

In this second round, participants agreed to exchangesome 5,000 tariff concessions, and 10 more countriessigned the General Agreement.


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Second round of multilateral tradenegotiations

Annecy, France, 1949

Annecy is in the French Alps not far fromGeneva. Here, French delegate Andr

Philip speaks in the plenary session of

the second GATT round.


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Second round of multilateral trade

negotiationsAnnecy, France, 1949

Annecy is in the French Alps not far from

Geneva. Here, French delegate AndrPhilip speaks in the plenary session of the

second GATT round.


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The Dillon Round, Geneva, 1960-61

Move on a decade, skip one round. By the time they

reached their fifth tariff negotiation, GATT signatoriesdecided to give the talks a name.

The negotiations launched in Geneva on 1 September1960 were to become known as the Dillon Round, afterC Douglas Dillon, US undersecretary of state under

President Eisenhower, and Treasury Secretary underPresident Kennedy (who took office during the round inJanuary 1961). By then the European Community hadbeen set up and was beginning to match the UnitedStates' economic clout.

This photo shows participants at the inaugural meeting.

(The fourth round had been held in Geneva in 1956.)


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The Kennedy Round, Geneva, 1964-1967

GATT trade rounds were getting longer and more complicated. Inthe sixth, the Kennedy Round, participation surged to more than 60countries - 66 nations attended the opening ceremony, picturedhere, on 4 May 1964 in Geneva.

The subjects discussed also expanded, from the traditional tariff cutsto new trade rules, such as those on the use of anti-dumpingmeasures.

The Kennedy Round was named after the US president who haddied the previous year. This was partly in his memory and partlybecause President Kennedy had secured the 1962 US TradeExpansion Act which authorized the US government to negotiatetariff cuts of up to 50%, a key factor allowing the talks to take place.


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The Kennedy Round, Geneva, 1964-1967

And as the talks expanded, so did publicinterest. This press event during the

Kennedy Round contrasts with the pictureof the Havana conference (slide 2). Butthere was one common thread - EricWyndham-White, still at the helm, here

seen at the far right.
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The Tokyo Round, 1973-79

Another decade, and GATT negotiations moved outside Europe forthe first time. The seventh round was launched at a ministerialmeeting in Tokyo, 12-14 September 1973, seen here.

After the inauguration, the hard bargaining returned to Geneva.

The Tokyo Round took a broader look at the trade rules than itspredecessor, the Kennedy Round, with mixed results. Participationswelled again to 102 countries. The tariff negotiations led to further

substantial reductions in customs duties. A series of agreementswere reached on various non-tariff barriers, but they were onlysigned by some participants - they became known as the TokyoRound "codes".

However, the talks failed to come to grips with fundamental reformsin agricultural trade, and stopped short of providing a new

agreement on "safeguards" (emergency import measures). The firststeps in that direction were to take place in the next round.
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The Uruguay Round, 1986-94: the last and biggest GATTround

In 1986, a GATT round was launched in a developing country forthe first time. By now developing countries had become themajority in the GATT system, and in this round they were to playan unprecedented active role in the talks, alongside their morepowerful fellow-participants.

In September 1986, trade ministers met in the Uruguay resort ofPunta del Este (the meeting is pictured here). After a week oftough talking, they agreed to launch new negotiations. As inprevious rounds, these took place mainly in Geneva.

The Uruguay Round turned out to be the longest, mostcomplicated, and the last of the GATT rounds. It took seven and ahalf years to complete, and it led to the most fundamental reform

of world trade rules since GATT itself was created in 1948.
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'Half-way' point: the Montreal ministerial

The Uruguay Round was supposed to last four years. Therefore,the ministerial meeting in Montreal two years later, in December1988, was called the Mid-Term Review (seen here).

The objective was to set the agenda for the remaining two yearsof the round. Instead, the Montreal meeting ended in a deadlockthat was not broken until April the following year.

By the time ministers met again in Brussels in December 1990,the talks were considerably behind schedule. It was clear theround could not end as originally planned at that meeting.
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Seven years later, the talking ends ... well, most ofit

It was not until 15 December 1993 that the negotiationsfinally came to an end. GATT Director General PeterSutherland, seen here, brought the gavel down on a

deal that would transform world trade. Some talking did continue, however, in the weeks

leading up to the final signing ceremony, includingsome last-minute bargaining on tariffs


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The end, and a new beginning

Marrakesh, Morocco, April 1994

The Uruguay Round package was signed in

Marrakesh in April 1994, seven and a halfyears after the round began. This fourth

ministerial meeting of the Uruguay Round

was held in Marrakesh's Palais des Congrs.


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One signature per country covering 23,000 pages

The delay allowed participants to develop a clearer view of how world trade could bereformed. The final package was 23,000 pages long, the bulk being individualcountries commitments to lower trade barriers on an immense range of goods andservices. At the signing ceremony, the agreement covered a large table.

The most important result was the creation of the World Trade Organization, almosthalf a century after the failed attempt to create an International Trade Organization(slide 2). And with the WTOs creation, the multilateral rules were expanded to covernew areas of trade.

GATT had only dealt with trade in goods. It was to be replaced on 1 January 1995 bythe the WTO. But the General Agreement continued to exist in revised form alongsidenew rules for services and intellectual property.

The package was important in one other respect. It avoided a fundamental weaknessof the Tokyo Round - all WTO members have signed on to all the WTOs agreementswith a single signature, except for two less important codes (now known asplurilateral agreements).

In the picture Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi signs in thepresence of two other Thai ministers, GATT Director-General Peter Sutherland(second from right), and officials.
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A royal occasion: the closing ceremony

By the end, the number of participants in

the Uruguay Round had reached 123.

Almost all were represented in Marrakesh.

Here, King Hassan II, accompanied by the

Crown Prince of Morocco, presides over

the closing ceremony at his Marrakesh

palace after the signing.


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Ultimate responsibility: the ministerial conference

The WTOs topmost decision-making body is the ministerial conference.This met for the first time in December 1996 in Singapore, where modernfacilities welcomed an ever-expanding membership.

Here, current WTO Director-General Renato Ruggiero is seen addressingthe Singapore conference in person from the podium and in video.

In Singapore, ministers examined how the WTO agreements are being putinto practice. They also started exploratory work in the WTO on new issues.

Among these are: competition policy, the relationship between trade andinvestment, and trade facilitation - helping trade flow more smoothly byimproving information and removing bureaucratic and other obstacles thatare not currently handled by the WTOs agreements.

The ministerial conferences are held no more than two years apart. Thesecond meeting is in Geneva in May 1998, when 50 years of the multilateraltrade system - the system set up with the creation of GATT - will be

celebrated.


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New challenges lie ahead

The past has shown how difficult setting the rules for trade hasbeen. It has also shown what can be achieved, and this will be

important for the future. Already, in 1997, three new agreements were reached at the WTOs

headquarters in Geneva (pictured here), to liberalize trade intelecommunications services, information technology products, andfinancial services.

Already on the horizon are new talks in areas such as agriculture

and services. Resuming negotiations in these subjects is acommitment in the present WTO agreements.

Who knows, perhaps the turn of the century will bring the first WTOtrade round; perhaps in an increasingly complex world, tradenegotiations will take a different form. It is already clear that therewill be plenty to talk about.

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