Search

Antidumping actions are widely criticised for being used as a protective device rather than as a means of controlling unfair trade practices. Michael Davenport discusses the complaints and proposals for change brought forward by the affected exporting countries in the current GATT round. Phedon Nicolaides analyses the antidumping policy of the European Community which has recently been the butt of particularly heavy criticism.

Within the Uruguay Round, the “Group of Negotiations on Trade in Services” deals with the formation of a multilateral framework of principles and rules for the “progressive liberalization” of trade in services. Telecommunications is of high priority in the framework preparations, both as a delivery vehicle for information-intensive services and as a service industry itself. This article attempts to clarify possible economic and developmental opportunities for LDCs which could emerge from the Uruguay negotiations regarding telecommunications and information-intensive services. It contains an up-to-date analysis of the present results of the Uruguay Round and offers an outlook on the consequences of the negotiations.

The use of non-tariff barriers to trade, which began to be important in the 1970s, has continued to increase throughout the 1980s. Notwithstanding the difficulties and limitations it faces, the Uruguay Round probably presents the only present opportunity of coming to grips with many existing exemptions to, and distortions of, GATT rules.

The “Trade Policy Review Mechanism” passed within the framework of the Uruguay Round is intended to increase the transparency of national trade policies and to improve adherence to the rules of GATT. The following article offers a first evaluation of the new instrument.

Floating exchange rates affect two basic principles of GATT, namely: stability of trade policy conditions and reciprocity of trade concessions. What is the relevance of the changes to foreign trade? What possibilities for surmounting the new problems exist in the realm of external economic relations?

Most developing countries have shown reluctance towards the inclusion of trade in services in the normal GATT negotiating framework, as demanded by industrialised countries. What are the reasons for their scepticism?

In the fifties and sixties GATT was a motive power for worldwide trade liberalization which caused exports and imports to increase constantly at a higher rate than the production of goods. If this positive trend is to last, the course must be laid now for progressive removal of the trade barriers.

The GATT Conference of Ministers scheduled for November will have to deal with those developments of recent years which have given cause to believe that GATT is increasingly being adapted to the trade practices of its signatories rather than itself serving as their guiding principle. Does such a trend in fact exist and, if so, what are its effects on the member states' welfare?

While neomercantilist policy measures, in the form of both import protection and export subsidization, are still gathering momentum and are just entering their second decade with evidently high growth rates, the dynamic post-war growth of world trade itself has at least temporarily come to a halt: trade fell in volume in 1981 by just under 1% and, in 1982, by about 2%. A new round of multilateral trade negotiations is in prospect for 1985, during which further tariff reductions will be on the agenda, but the main item for discussion will be questions surrounding a reform of GATT which emerged from the Tokyo Round. The following article seeks to establish the true significance of the GATT principles today, investigates the causes of the erosion of discipline within GATT, and deals with important aspects of present efforts to introduce reforms.

The seventh round of GATT negotiations was brought to a conclusion in the spring of this year. One of the objects for the USA was to correct the trend of world trade which had been to its disadvantage. Its main concern was to bring about a settlement of the trade relations with the western industrialized states and the EC in particular. Has the USA achieved these aims?