加载中…General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization
In 1947, a
group of 23 industrial nations met in Geneva to mutually reduce
tariff barriers to trade. Their accord, called the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), lowered tariffs on45 000
separate products.
Today, some 110 industrial and developing GATT member countries,
known as contracting parties, account for' almost 90 percent of
world trade. GATT's basic aim is to reduce trade barriers ; the
fact that the growth of world trade has exceeded economic output by
50 percent during the 1980s attests to GATT's success in doing
so2.
GATT has grown into a major international organization,
headquartered in Geneva,3 that provides a framework4 within which
international negotiations are conducted toward5 creating global
trade rules and a consultative mechanism for resolving differences
and settling disputes under those rules. It also provides technical
assistance to developing countries in the form of seminars and
training courses on trade policy issues.
Origins
In December 1945, the United States submitted a proposal which
provides for the establishment of an International Trade Or
ganization (ITO). A preparatory committee was appointed which
through discussions worked on a draft charter for the ITO.
Meanwhile, bilateral negotiations took place among most of the
states represented on the committee. The reciprocal tariff
concessions which resulted from these negotiations were embodied in
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, signed on 30 October
1947, containing a provisional codification on trade relations
among the signatory countries.
A significant number of countries sought6 membership of GATT. In
April 1949, negotiations were opened among the 23 countries which
were already GATT members and ten other countries. In 1950 the
validity of the tariff concession lists' was extended for three
years.
Initially, GATT was proposed as a specific internal trade agreement
under the ITO, so the Agreement consisted of only three basic
parts. In Part 1 the basic obligations which are to be fulfilled by
the contracting parties are laid down——-the most-favored nation
clause8 and the schedules of tariff concessions.
Part 2 constitutes a code of fair trade9 and contains the essential
trading rules of the Havana Charter. Part 3 deals with the
applications , membership and withdrawal, amendments to the
Agreement and its relation to the Havana Charter10.
In the years followed, the text of the General Agreement was
revised, numerous amendments were reached relating mainly to the
expansion of exports of less-developed countries and a new part,
Part 4 was added.
Objectives
The aims of the General Agreement are set forth in the preamble. A
distinction has to be made between the general aims, which are also
pursued by many other international economic organizations, arsd
the specific tasks. The general aims are the improvement of
standards of living, full employment", a large and steadily growing
volume of real income and effective demand, the full use of the
world's resources and the expansion of production and international
trade.
It is the specific task of GATT to contribute to the attainment of
these objectives through arrangements directed to the substantial
reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and to the
elimination of discrimination. lz
In Part 4, the contracting parties agree that the attainment of the
general aims is particularly urgent where less-developed countries
are concerned. In the interest of the less-developed countries,
endeavors must also be made to ensure the stabilization of
commodity prices, better access to13 the markets of the developed
countries for processed and manufactured products of the
less-developed countries, and the diminution of the burdens which
these countries assume in the interest of their economic
development.
Organization
A.
Members
The accession of a new member country requires a two-thirds
majority vote by the contracting parties. In a certain sense, this
is inconsistent with the character of the Agreement; as the trade
benefits are granted to all GATT members, a state should only be
accepted by unanimous vote. 14 However, it was desired to obviate a
situation in which the acceptance of an important country might be
impeded by member stares which supply comparatively little to that
country and compete against it on the markets of the other
contracting parties.
Moreover, member states which do not assent to the accession of a
given country are allowed to refrain from applying the provisions
of the Agreement, if the two countries have not entered into tariff
negotiations with each other. In other words, membership does not
necessarily involve a uniform tariff system15 with respect to all
participating countries.
A country with a considerable production and export potential16
usually has to make substantial concessions in exchange for
acceptance as a member state. The majority of countries agree to
its accession only if they are certain that increased exports to
the new member state will offset a fail in exports to the other
GATT countries.
B.
Administration
Unlike other international agencies, GATT is not an organization in
the strict legal sense, though the member countries do act as a
body and make collective decisions and judgments which are an
important part of the GATT mechanism. This body is referred to in
the text of the General Agreement as the "CONTRACTING PARTIES". The
contracting parties' main activity is the holding of tariff and
trade negotiations, at which the member countries grant each other
concession in the field of trade, and of meetings and
consultations'7 to resolve trade problems.
At the sessions of the contracting parties each country has one
vote and , except in a few specific cases, decisions are taken by a
simple majority of the votes cast18. In practice, GATT decisions
are generally arrived at by consensus and not by vote.
In addition to the annual meetings of the contracting parties, a
number of tariff negotiating conferences were heid under the
auspices of GATT during the course of the years GATT had been
functioning. Altogether 8 rounds of multilateral trade
negotiations
were held since GATT entered into force in 1947 till the end of
1993 when the last round, the Uruguay Round finally concluded. The
big decision made then was to establish a permanent organization,
World Trade Organization, to take the place of GATT.
The World Trade
Organization
On January 1, 1995 the World Trade Organization established on the
basis of the document signed before the conclusion of the Uruguay
Round by the ministers of 97 countries formally started its
operation and began its administrative work, taking over all the
unfinished work left by GATT and continuing to carry out the
agreements reached during the Uruguay Round. Being a new, improved
replacement of GATT, the WTO is a permanent international
organization to which all the members of GATT have automatically
become members. It is the organization's objective to work towards
the realization of full employment, expansion of production and
trade as well as the optimal use of the resources of the world so
as to raise the income level and standard of living of its member
countries. The new organization engaged for the first time in
negotiation and supervision of the service trade. It has an
important role to play in the settlement of trade disputes and
supervision of the implementation of trade policies and measures.
In a word,the WTO aims at facilitating the creation of an optimal
environment for international trade amongst nations to flourish and
further strengthen the multilateral trading system.
Important decisions of the WTO are made at its biennial minis
terial meetings.
Words and
Expressions
exceed
v.超过
accord n.协议
contracting parties缔约国;缔约方
attest (to) v.证明;表明
provide v.提供;规定
framework n.框架;机构
submit v.提交
consultative a.协商的
reciprocal a.互惠的;对等的;相互补偿的
seminar n.研讨会
embody v.体现;概括;收录
codification n.(法律/条例)集
signatory countries签约国
charter n.正式文件
lay down规定
significant
a.重大的;相当数量的
withdrawal n.撤销;撤回
preamble n.(法律/条约等的)序言
attainment n.达到
diminution n.减少;减小
accession n.增加
obviate v. 排除;消除
assent (to) v. n. 赞成;同意
under the auspices of由….主办;赞助
enter into force 开始生效
biennial a. 两年一次的
consensus n. (意见等的)一致
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