A Provision of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Treaty (Gatt)
(d) The Parties shall invite any Party applying restrictions under this Article to enter into consultations with them at the request of any Party that can demonstrate prima facie that the restrictions are inconsistent with the provisions of this Article or with those of Article XIII (subject to Article XIV) and that their trade is affected thereby. However, such a request shall be made only if the CONTRACTING PARTIES have established that the direct discussions between the Parties concerned have not been concluded. If, as a result of consultations with the PARTIES, no agreement is reached and they find that the restrictions are being applied inconsistently with those provisions and that this causes or threatens to prejudice the trade of the Party initiating the proceedings, they shall recommend the lifting or modification of the restrictions. If the restrictions are not lifted or modified within the time limit to be fixed by the CONTRACTING PARTIES, they may release the Party initiating the proceedings from the obligations under this Agreement vis-à-vis the Party applying the restrictions, to the extent that it deems it appropriate in the circumstances. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade entered into force on 1 January 1948. This brochure contains the full text of the General Agreement and all amendments that have entered into force since its entry into force. The text is identical to that published since 1969 as Volume IV of the series « Basic Acts and Selected Documents ». A guide to the legal sources of the provisions of the Agreement is set out in the Annex. The Secretariat has prepared and published an analytical index containing notes on the drafting, interpretation and application of the articles of the Agreement. A second publication that completes it contains the text of the agreements concluded following the multilateral trade negotiations of the Tokyo Round (1973-1979). However, this part of the result was not approved by Congress, and the US sale price was not abolished until Congress passed the results of the Tokyo Round. Overall, the results in agriculture have been poor.
The most notable achievement was the agreement on a memorandum of understanding on the basic elements for the negotiation of a global subsidy arrangement, which was eventually transformed into a new international agreement on cereals. Article XXIII, entitled « Cancellation or deterioration », governs in particular disagreements between the contracting parties. It deals with circumstances in which a party considers that a benefit under the agreement has been « nullified or affected » or that the achievement of an objective under the agreement has been compromised. This may result from the failure of another party « to perform its obligations under this Agreement » or the actions of another Party « whether or not contrary to the provisions of this Agreement » or « the existence of another situation ». 9. The Contracting Parties recognize that domestic measures of maximum price control, even if consistent with the other provisions of this Article, may have adverse effects on the interests of Contracting Parties supplying imported goods. Accordingly, the Parties applying such measures shall take into account the interests of the exporting Parties in order to avoid, to the extent possible, such adverse effects. (b) Similar provisions shall apply to any Party that is not a member of the Fund from the date on which that Party becomes a member of the Fund or enters into a special exchange agreement in accordance with Article XV. (b) the provisions of this Article shall not preclude the payment of subsidies exclusively to domestic producers, including payments to domestic producers resulting from the proceeds of internal taxes or charges applied in accordance with this Article and from subsidies granted through public procurement of domestic products; (ii) not to apply restrictions in order to unreasonably prevent the importation of product descriptions in minimum commercial quantities, the exclusion of which would affect regular trade routes; and most countries have adopted the most-favoured-nation principle in setting tariffs, which have largely replaced quotas. Tariffs (which are preferable to quotas but still a barrier to trade) have again been steadily reduced in successive rounds of negotiations. The details of GATT have been optimized in the decades since its creation.
The main objective of the continuation of the negotiations was to further reduce tariffs. In the mid-1960s, the Kennedy Round added an anti-dumping agreement. The Tokyo Round in the 70s improved other aspects of trade. The Uruguay Round lasted from 1986 to 1994 and created the World Trade Organization, and these rules, which concern a customs union or a free trade area and when compatible with GATT, have proved notoriously difficult and, therefore, GATT has never exercised real control over preferential economic arrangements. The most important development in the field of customs unions during the GATT period was the creation of the European Economic Community (`the EEC`). .