Word: gattes
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...General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva, argued that the chances of a full-scale trade war, particularly between the U.S. and its European partners, remain remote, if only because both sides fear the economic carnage that would ensue. Tumlir even found a "silver lining" in the GATT meeting two weeks ago, which pitted U.S. negotiators against the European Community over the issue of agriculture subsidies. Although the meeting generally was regarded as at least a setback to world trade, Tumlir saw in the desperate last-minute efforts to prevent an impasse proof that the main participants recognized...
Prompted by the same concerns, 88 trade and foreign ministers convened in Geneva last week for the first ministerial meeting in nine years of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a body formed after World War II to monitor rules for international commerce. After more than four days of acrimonious debate, the meeting ended in a virtual deadlock...
...crisis comes after more than three decades of freedom in international trade that produced unprecedented gains for the world economy. Chastened by the Great Depression, which was partly induced by rampant protectionism, GATT members have completed seven major negotiations that virtually eliminated tariffs among Western nations. Partly as a result, postwar trade grew at an annual rate of almost 7% in real terms from 1948 to 1973. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 5 million jobs depend on foreign trade, while last year exports accounted for 8% of the gross national product, up from 4.1% in 1960. But since...
...accusations flew, only the French openly blamed GATT and the free trading systems for the world's current economic ills. With his nation stirring controversy in Europe over an ingenious new barrier against Japanese video recorders (see box), acerbic French Trade Minister Michel Jobert lambasted U.S. free trade principles as a "formula of dogmatic liberalism" yielding "subtle" forms of protectionism, and argued that in any case high interest rates and currency fluctuations, not trade barriers, caused joblessness...
Maybe the only difference between the new pact and no pact at all is that the GATT accord preserves an illusion of a commitment to free trade. Had the talks failed to reach any agreement, the world's nations would have been forced to realize how much more needs to be done to better trade relations and to prevent protectionism. Now governments can impose tariffs and other restrictions and still remain loyal to the letter of the Geneva package. At the outset of the talks, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary R.T. McNamar declared. "The GATT ministerial decision may well...