Which Of These Trade Agreements Represents

The GATT authors felt that the removal of trade barriers should be done on a multilateral basis, in order to obtain the most important benefits of expanded production on the basis of comparative advantages. As noted above, they have included this term in Article I of the GATT (most favoured nation, MFN, treatment), which requires members to grant equal treatment of trade barriers to all GATT members. In approving the initial GATT and the results of the multilateral negotiations that followed, the parties considered the dumping, subsidies and safeguard provisions to be an integral part of the balanced package. For the United States, the existence of these provisions was also necessary to reach sufficient internal political consensus to obtain approval for each trade cycle. Without the assurance that they would be protected from unfair competition, a number of industries would have opposed the agreement. And some industries and labour organizations have called for provisions that allow temporary facilities to avoid serious disruptions in an industry. As a result, trade ministers agreed to a separate declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health, issued in parallel with the Doha Ministerial Declaration. [23] This statement confirmed that the TRIPS agreement should be interpreted and implemented in a manner consistent with the right of WTO members to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all. Ministers could not agree on how to address the concerns of small countries that do not have a domestic production base for compulsory licences, but acknowledged the problem and agreed to resolve it within two years.

It has long been recognized that countries could use exchange rate policy as a trade distortion: an undervalued currency serves as a subsidy to the country`s exports and as an obstacle to imports. The founders of the post-war institutions imagined that THE GATT would deal with trade issues and that exchange rate issues would be dealt with by the International Monetary Fund. this tariff rate, which maximizes the net benefit resulting from the improvement in the country`s terms of trade against the negative effects of the reduction in trade volume.

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