8th Round

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided global trade rules as well as a
framework for trade disputes from 1948 to 1994. It was one of three Bretton Woods
organizations developed after World War II. (The others were the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank.)
The goal of GATT founders was to liberalize world trade, specifically by reducing protective
tariffs.
The first round of negotiations impacted one fifth of world trade; there were 23 founding
members. The eighth and last round -- the Uruguay Round of 1986-94 -- led to the creation of
the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a new set of trade agreements.
Corporations often argue for more open trade in order to have access to new markets. Labor
often argues for trade restrictions in order to protect domestic jobs. Because trade agreements
must be approved by governments, this tension sets up political conflict.
8th Round (Uruguay Round, 1986-94)
8th Round: Uruguay Round: the multilateral round of trade negotiations which began on 25
September 1986 with a meeting of trade ministers at Punta del Este, Uruguay, and ended with
the Marrakesh Ministerial meeting on 15 April 1994. The objectives of the negotiations were:
(i) Further liberalization and expansion of world trade,
(ii) Strengthening the role of the GATT and improving the multilateral trading system,
(iii) Increasing the responsiveness of the GATT to the international economic environment,

and
(iv) Foster international cooperative economic action.
Participants agreed to a standstill on trade-restrictive measures during the negotiations and a

rollback provision. The subjects for negotiations, the widest of any GATT round, were tariffs,
non-tariff measures, tropical products as a priority area, natural resource-based products,
textiles and clothing, agriculture, review of GATT articles, safeguards, Tokyo Round
agreements ad arrangements, subsidies and countervailing measures, dispute settlement,
trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, trade-related investment measures and the
Functioning of the GATT System (FOGS).
A negotiating group established for the purpose managed each of these subjects. Negotiations
on trade in services were to be held on a legally separate track at the insistence of a group of
developing countries who did not then accept that services should be covered by the GATT.
Ministers agreed that negotiations would conclude within four years. The negotiations
can be divided into three stages:
(a) From the laugh at Punta del Este to the Montreal mid-term review in December 1988,
(b) The period from then on up the Brussels Ministerial meeting in December 1990 which
was supposed to mark the end of the negotiations, and
(c) The events leading up to the Marrakesh ministerial meeting in April 1994.
Substantive negotiations ended on 15 December 1993 when the second extension to the
United States negotiating authority, the fast-track authority, expired. The Uruguay Round was
therefore by far the longest round of multilateral trade negotiations.
It would be wrong, however, to view it as a continuous set of negotiations. Long stretches of

its seven-and-a-half years were spent waiting for this or that participant or group of
participants to come to terms with the need for a change in its negotiating position. This was
the case especially in the third period when the Blair House Accord was negotiated and then
renegotiated.
The text of the "first approximation to the Final Act" of the Uruguay Round, submitted by the
Director-General of the GATT to the Brussels Ministerial meeting in December 1990, was in
fact very close to the agreement finally adopted at Marrakesh in April 1994.
The main achievements of the Uruguay Round included:
 A trade-weighted average tariff cut of 38%,
 Conclusion of the Agreement on Agriculture which brought agricultural trade for the
first time under full GATT disciplines,
 Adoption of the General Agreement of trade in Services, the Agreement on Trade-

Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and the Agreement on Trade-Related
Investment Measures,
 The creation of unified and predictable dispute settlement mechanism,
 Confirmation f the trade Policy Review Mechanism,
 The establishment of the World Trade Organization, which administers 15

multilateral, and four plurilateral trade agreements.
Other results of the round were strengthened provisions on anti-dumping, subsidies and
safeguards. The new Agreement on Textiles and Clothing will bring this sector under the
GATT rules by replacing the Multi-Fiber Arrangement.

8th Round

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

8th Round

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

8th Round

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided global trade rules as well as a

8th Round (Uruguay Round, 1986-94)

(i) Further liberalization and expansion of world trade,

(iii) Increasing the responsiveness of the GATT to the international economic environment,

(iv) Foster international cooperative economic action.

Participants agreed to a standstill on trade-restrictive measures during the negotiations and a

It would be wrong, however, to view it as a continuous set of negotiations. Long stretches of

The main achievements of the Uruguay Round included:

 A trade-weighted average tariff cut of 38%,

 Adoption of the General Agreement of trade in Services, the Agreement on Trade-

 The creation of unified and predictable dispute settlement mechanism,

 Confirmation f the trade Policy Review Mechanism,

 The establishment of the World Trade Organization, which administers 15

You might also like