Word: gattes
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Free Trade Is the Issue IN 1947, the U.S. and 23 other free nations banded together in a trade pact called GATT. To many a plain citizen, GATT is nothing but a baffling set of initials. Actually, its meaning is simple. It stands for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and it is the chief instrument for expansion of world trade and the amicable settlement of trade disputes among the 34 nations-controlling 80% of world trade-that are now members...
...GATT was designed to bring order out of a chaotic mass of trade pacts that sprang up after the U.S. Congress passed the first Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934. Under that act, the U.S. signed bilateral tariff agreements with France, Great Britain, Belgium and 26 other nations. As each of these nations signed similar agreements with dozens of other countries, a tangled net of concessions, quota restrictions, special licenses, etc. was created. To simplify matters, the U.S. helped sponsor a meeting of interested nations after World War II to write a single, broad General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade...
...counter the situation, thirty-four nations signed a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947 to provide a meeting-ground for the settlement of trade disputes. Although GATT has been a step toward cooperation, its forums meet only once a year and many settlements in the past have been only ineffective bi-lateral agreements. Because no international agency supervises administration of the compacts, disputes often arise. The plan for an Organization for Trade Cooperation, currently before Congress, offers some support for GATT's rather shaky foundations. OTC would serve as a "continuous mechanism" for discussion of disputes and administration...
Complaints about these, and countless other anomalies, pour into Washington each week. Last month GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) censured the U.S. for restricting dairy imports by quota. The London Economist wrote: "The U.S. is seeking two worlds-one where it can sell its sur pluses freely, and another where no other country can sell farm products freely to it." Said an angry Japanese businessman: "The Americans tell us not to trade with the Communists, then they turn around and raise their duties on silk scarves. It doesn't make sense...
...Geneva for the opening session on revision of GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), Assistant Secretary of State Samuel C. Waugh read a letter from President Eisenhower in which Ike said that he "looks forward to early action" in the next Congress on his international trade program...