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Wide negotiations & contracting parties -

Developing countries and the multilateral trading system – from the GATT to the Uruguay round & the future.

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Wide negotiations & contracting parties -

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  1. Developing countries and the multilateral trading system – from the GATT to the Uruguay round & the future The origin of the GATT can be traced to the US governments “proposals for the expansion of world trade & employment” published on Dec. 6th ,1945 and forwarded to all other countries in the world.

  2. Wide negotiations & contracting parties - • In all 123 bilateral negotiations covering 50,000 items took place over 1,000 meetings and produced a single document called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on Nov. 18, 1947. • Among the original twenty-three contracting parties to the GATT in 1947, eleven were developing countries.

  3. Purpose of GATT - • The General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) was established in 1948 in Geneva to pursue the objective of free & fair trade in order to encourage growth and development of all member countries. • The principal purpose of GATT was to ensure competition in commodity trade through reduction or removal of trade barriers.

  4. The Uruguay round of Negotiations - • The 8th round of multi-lateral trade negotiations, popularly as Uruguay Round was started in September 1986 at a special session of GATT contracting parties held at ministerial level. • The Uruguay Round (UR) contained the mandate to have negotiations in 15 areas. In part I, negotiations on trade in goods were to be conducted in 14 areas and in part II negotiations on trade in services were to be carried out.

  5. Part I (trade in goods) declaration in UR - • Tariffs • Non tariff measures • Tropical products • Natural resource based products • Textiles and clothing • Agriculture • GATT Articles • Safeguards • MTN • Subsidies • Dispute settlement • TRIPs • TRIMs • FOGS

  6. Part II of the declaration included trade in services and re-classified the above 15 areas into 7 as below - • Market access • Agriculture • Textiles • TRIMs • TRIPs • Trade in Services • Institutional Matters

  7. Impact of WTO on various aspects of Indian economy - • Effects on Indian Industry • Impact of WTO on SSI Units • WTO, Subsidies and Agriculture

  8. Doha talks collapse - • As the Doha round talks collapsed, basically, due to the US/EU squabbling over agricultural subsidies, India has reaped an indirect gain. • It can now continue with its protectionist agricultural policies.

  9. Since the establishment of WTO in Jan. 1995, so far 6 ministerial conferences have been held: • Singapore - Dec. 1996 • Geneva – May 1998 • Seattle – Nov.-Dec. 1999 • Doha – Nov. 2001 • Cancun – Sept. 2003 • Hong Kong – Dec. 2005

  10. Objectives of WTO - • To improve standard of living of people in the member countries. • To ensure full employment and broad increase in effective demand. • To enlarge production and trade of goods. • To enlarge production and trade of services. • To ensure optimum utilization of world resources. • To accept the concept of sustainable development. • To protect environment.

  11. No. of WTO members - 149 • There are presently 30 countries in the process of accession to the WTO. • There are number of important committees for administration of WTO – • 1. Dispute Settlement Body. • 2. Trade Policy Review Body. • 3. Council for Trade in Goods. • 4. Council for Trade in Services. • 5. Council for Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

  12. Multilateralism Vs. Bilateralism • There is no doubt that in a world of unequal partners, multilateralism is superior to bilateralism and if some concessions are to be extracted from strong partners belonging to US and European Community, then the combined strength of the developing countries can exercise a stronger pull in their favour.

  13. Social clause & multi-lateral trade organization • The innovation of the social clause was also conceived with the same intention of blunting the competitive advantage of developing nations. • The solution lies in the fact that the developing nations should take advantage of the multi-lateral trade organization and show their combined strength by closing their ranks, rather than surrender their sovereignty one after another.

  14. Conclusion • There is no concrete answer to this question whether multilateral trade negotiation has completely solved the problem of the developing nations in achieving the free and fair trade under globalization era.

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