Suchergebnisse

Pursuant to a decision taken at the first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Interim Commission for the International Trade Organization, the second session met in Geneva from August 25 to September 15, 1948. The committee reached agreement on several organizational and procedural questions to be submitted to the first session of the ITO conference and established several subcommittees to work on substantive matters including relations with the International Court of Justice, economic development, administrative questions and technical matters.

The second session of the Executive Committee of the Interim Commission for the International Trade Organization was convened in Geneva on August 25, 1948. Among the items discussed were 1) a report of the work of the secretariat and its information activities, 2) relations with the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the International Court of Justice, 3) financial and staff regulations for the permanent Organization, 4) a report by the secretariat on the Havana resolution relating to economic development and reconstruction, and 5) representation of the Interim Commission on the Interim Coordinating Committee for International Commodity Agreements. Consultations were held with the Secretariat of the United Nations and Registry of the International Court of Justice in connection with the preparation of agreements bringing the ITO into relationship with these two organizations.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment: The Conference, which was convened by the Economic and Social Council at Havana on November 21, 1947, ended on March 24, 1948 when representatives of 53 countries signed the Final Act of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment, which included the Charter of the International Trade Organization. Of the 56 eligible nations, three did not sign; Argentina and Poland had previously announced their abstentions and the Turkish delegation stated that its instructions had been delayed. The Final Act committed the delegations to submit the Charter to their governments for ratification. The Charter was to enter into effect 60 days after a majority (27) of the signatories ratified the document. If, by March 24, 1949, this requirement had not been fulfilled then 20 ratifications were to be adequate; if by September 30, 1949, these ratifications had not been made, the Secretary-General of the United Nations was to invite the governments which had ratified to confer for the purpose of determining on what conditions they desired to bring the Charter into effect.

International Trade, 1953: A report on international trade developments during 1953 was issued by GATT in June 1954. During the year 1953, a significant change had occurred in the prevailing post-1950 pattern of trade; the unfavorable position of the western European industrial areas with the accompanying dollar deficits had been largely redressed, with a gradual reversion to the pre-Korean price structure. Important shifts in the flow of goods between the industrial areas had contributed to a more balanced trade pattern than at any other time in the post-war period. The level of trade among the three non-industrial areas had remained remarkably constant, but there had been a significant slowing down of the exchange of goods between the areas producing primary products and the industrial areas of the world; while the volume of exports of the primary producers had increased, the prices of their commodities had fallen to an extent that made export proceeds decline heavily. However, there had been an intensification of exchanges between each industrial area and the particular primary producing region with which it was most closely associated.

By April 1949 Australia had ratified the ITO Charter, contingent on its being put into effect by the United States and the United Kingdom. Other countries were awaiting action by the United States, where President Truman was about to submit the Charter to the Congress for decision. With the acceptance of the Havana Charter by twenty countries necessary for the creation of ITO, Eric Wyndham White, Executive Secretary of the Interim Commission, stressed the importance of bringing ITO into being without delay. He described the organization as essentially a business-like approach towards the reduction of trade barriers and the expansion of trade on a multilateral, permanent basis.

General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeThe ninth session of the thirty-four contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade opened in Geneva on October 28, 1954, under the chairmanship of Mr. L. Dana Wilgress (Canada). A number of non-member states and inter-governmental organizations sent observers to the session, whose work was divided into two parts: discussion of the normal business of GATT, which extended from October 28 through November 7, and consideration of proposals for the revision of GATT, which would expire in mid-1955, and for transforming it into a more permanent organization.

Forty-four nations were represented at the fifth session on tariff negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade at Torquay, England which convened on September 28, 1950. Of the nations which took part in negotiations, 32 were contracting parties to GATT and seven (Austria, Korea, Peru, the Republic of the Philippines, Turkey, Uruguay and the Federal Republic of Germany) attended the conference with the hope of becoming signatories upon the completion of negotiations. There were five countries (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela and Switzerland) which sent observers. L. Dana Wilgress of Canada was the chairman of the meeting. The United States withdrew its request to have Japan restored to full trading equality at the conference because of the indications that other nations were not yet willing to grant most-favored-nation treatment to Japan. The contracting parties negotiated among themselves for newer and broader tariff concessions than those obtained at Geneva in 1947. At the conclusion of the country-with-country bargaining, the results wtere examined by all the participating countries and upon their approval were integrated into the agreement. Other items of importance to international trade discussed were 1) the discrimination against dollar goods as practiced by some countries and 2) the relation of the Schuman Plan to the most-favored-nation clauses in existing agreements. The conference established a tariff negotiations working party of eleven to act as expeditor and policeman if the delegations were slow in initiating negotiations or dragged them on too long.

The fifth general session of contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade held in Torquay, England ended on December 19,1950. Prior ot adjournment, a Canadian proposal to create a standing committee to handle the problems arising between sessions was referred to the participating governments for their consideration. The session approved the circulation among the parties of a questionnaire designed to obtain by early 1951 information on the policy, technique, and effect of import restrictions being applied for balance-of-payments reasons, and information on discriminatory measures applied under exceptions made for the postwar transitional period. It was also agreed that due to the uncertain international situation, there should be an extension of the period for the use of exceptional import controls on scarce commodities and those of which there were large government-owned stocks. The conference in addition studied several complaints alleging that the benefits of some tariff concessions had been nullified by the actions of certain governments and accepted a code of standard practices on the administration of necessary trade restrictions.1 The code provided that: 1) the grant of an import license should imply that the necessary foreign exchange would be obtainable if applied for within a reasonable time; 2) if both import licenses and exchange permits were required the operation of the two requirements should be coordinated; 3) new restrictions on imports or exports should not apply to goods proved to have been en route at the time of the change or to have been already largely paid for; 4) goods proven to have been confirmed prior to the change in restrictions and not marketable anywhere else should receive special consideration; 5) the administrative formalities in connection with the issuing of import and export licenses or exchange permits should be designed to allow action on applications within a reasonably short period; 6) requests for renewal under exceptional circumstances should be given sympathetic consideration; 7) under a system of fixed quotas the period set for applications should be sufficient to allow for exchanges of communications for the purchase of the goods; 8) the control authorities, when apportioning quotas to importers on the basis of past participation in the trade, should give consideration to requests for licenses from new firms; 9) if an assurance on an import license would be necessary for consular legalization, a communication giving the number of the license should be sufficient; 10) authority given to customs officials should be sufficient to allow slight discrepancies from specifications of import or export authorization; and 11) when a balance-of-payments difficulty has occurred, transfers of exchange should give priority to goods already imported or licensed in preference to new orders.

The conference which was concluded at Annecy August 13, 1949 consisted of two separate meetings: the third session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; and a series of tariff negotiations among the 23 contracting parties and eleven other governments which wished to accede to GATT.

Eighth Session of Contracting Parties: The Contracting Parties of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade held their eighth session in Geneva from September 17 through October 24, 1953. Johan Melander (Norway) and Akhtar Hassain (Pakistan) were elected chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the session, at which delegates of the 34 contracting parties took part.

Six additional governments — Austria, German Federal Republic, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Turkey became eligible to accede to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. By June 20,1951 each of the six governments had received the required two-thirds majority under the terms of the agreement. To complete requirements for accession, each was obliged to sign the Torquay Protocol by October 21, 1951.

The seventh session of the Contracting Parties to GATT met at Geneva, Switzerland from October 2 to November 10, 1952 under the chairmanship of Johan Melander (Norway). Participating were delegates of the 34 countries which were contracting parties and observers from other governments and intergovernmental organizations. The seventh session was concerned primarily with items arising out of the operation of GATT, including items falling under the complaints procedure, tariffs and tariff negotiations, miscellaneous items proposed by governments and non-governmental organizations and the administration of GATT. Apart from an agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria concerning reciprocal concessions to the tariff agreement which had been concluded in 1951 within the framework of the Torquay Tariff Conference, no tariff negotiations were undertaken during the session. In connection with the reduction of tariff levels, the contracting parties reexamined the French plan for lowering tariffs by 30 percent on a worldwide basis in three yearly stages and the contracting parties instructed working parties to continue studies of the question.

General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeThe ninth session of the contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ended on March 7, 1955. The principal obstacles to agreement before late January were felt to have been the reluctance of the United States to modify its policies on import quotas on agricultural products, the reluctance of countries adversely affected by this practice to give up their right to restrict imports of manufactures so long as the quotas continued, lack of agreement on extension of the previously negotiated tariff schedules beyond June 30, 1955, the question of agricultural subsidies as a whole, the exceptions to GATT to be permitted to a country in balance of payments difficulties, and the quantitative restrictions to be permitted under-developed countries.

The Ad Hoc Committee for Intersessional Business established by the parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade met in Geneva from February 2, 1953 to consider Japan's request to become a contracting party. On February 15, it was provisionally agreed that no special modifications or additions to the agreement would be necessary to incorporate Japan. The committee recommended that speedy procedures for granting relief be provided should the admission of Japan have any of the "unfortunate consequences" some members were reported to foresee. Such a procedure, the committee pointed out, was provided in Article 23 of the agreement by which any party could be relieved from the obligation to refrain from discriminating against another party if the contracting parties as a group decided that such relief would further the general objectives of the agreement.