Uruguay Round Negotiations
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The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its pre ...
(GATT), spanning from 1986 to 1993 and embracing 123 countries as "contracting parties". The Round led to the creation of the World Trade Organization, with GATT remaining as an integral part of the WTO agreements. The broad mandate of the Round had been to extend GATT trade rules to areas previously exempted as too difficult to liberalize ( agriculture,
textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
) and increasingly important new areas previously not included (trade in services, intellectual property, investment policy trade distortions). The Round came into effect in 1995 with deadlines ending in 2000 (2004 in the case of developing country contracting parties) under the administrative direction of the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO). The Doha Development Round was the next trade round, beginning in 2001 and still unresolved after missing its official deadline of 2005.


Goals

The main objectives of the Uruguay Round were: *to reduce agricultural subsidies *to lift restrictions on foreign investment *to begin the process of opening trade in services like banking and insurance. *to include the protection of intellectual property They also wanted to draft a code to deal with copyright violation and other forms of intellectual property rights.


History

A set of updated documents was produced in Geneva by the office of the Director-General during July 1986 in order to prepare the way for progress to be made. As described below, the round was launched in Punta del Este, Uruguay in September 1986, followed by negotiations in Geneva, Brussels, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo.


Background

The 1986 Ministerial Declaration identified problems including structural deficiencies, spill-over impacts of certain countries' policies on world trade GATT could not manage. To address these issues, the eighth GATT round (known as the Uruguay Round) was launched in September 1986, in Punta del Este, Uruguay.P. Gallagher, ''The First Ten Years of the WTO'', 4 It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed: the talks were going to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles; all the original GATT articles were up for review.The Uruguay Round
World Trade Organization
The round was supposed to end in December 1990, but the US and EU disagreed on how to reform agricultural trade and decided to extend the talks. Finally, In November 1992, the US and EU settled most of their differences in a deal known informally as " the Blair House accord", and on 15 April 1994, the deal was signed by ministers from most of the 123 participating governments at a meeting in
Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
, Morocco. The agreement established the World Trade Organization, which came into being upon its entry into force on 1 January 1995, to replace the GATT system. It is widely regarded as the most profound institutional reform of the world trading system since the GATT's establishment. The position of Developing Countries (GATT) was detailed in the book: ''Brazil in the Uruguay Round of the GATT: The Evolution of Brazil’s Position in the Uruguay Round, with Emphasis on the Issue of Services''. In this book, the polemics about the issue of services are described, as well as the opposition of Developing Countries to the so called "New Issues".CALDAS, Ricardo. Brazil in the Uruguay Round of the GATT: The Evolution of Brazil’s Position in the Uruguay Round, with Emphasis on the Issue of Services.


Conclusion and signature

The 20 agreements were signed in
Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
—the
Marrakesh Agreement The Marrakesh Agreement, manifested by the Marrakesh Declaration, was an agreement signed in Marrakesh, Morocco, by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, marking the culmination of the 8-year-long Uruguay Round and establishing the World Trade Organiz ...
—in April 1994.


Achievements

The GATT still exists as the WTO's umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations (a distinction is made between GATT 1994, the updated parts of GATT, and GATT 1947, the original agreement which is still the heart of GATT 1994).P. Gallagher, ''The First Ten Years of the WTO'', 4

The Uruguay Round
World Trade Organization
The GATT 1994 is not, however, the only legally binding agreement included in the Final Act; a long list of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions and understandings was adopted. In fact, the agreements fall into a simple structure with six main parts: *an umbrella agreement (the Agreement Establishing the WTO); *goods and investment (the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods including the GATT 1994 and the Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS)); *services ( General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)); *intellectual property ( Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)); *dispute settlement (DSU); *reviews of governments' trade policies (TPRM).Overview: a Navigational Guide
World Trade Organization. For the complete list of "The Uruguay Round Agreements", se

World Trade Organization, an
Urugua Round Agreements, Understandings, Decisions and Declarations
WorldTradeLaw.net
The agreements for the two largest areas under the WTO, goods and services, share a three-part outline: *broad principles (such as the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its pre ...
and General Agreement on Trade in Services); *extra agreements and annexes; *lengthy schedules (lists) of commitments made by individual countries. One of the achievements of the Uruguay round would be the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, administered by the WTO, which brings agricultural trade more fully under the GATT. Prior to the Uruguay Round, conditions for agricultural trade were deteriorating with increasing use of subsidies, build-up of stocks, declining world prices and escalating costs of support. It provides for converting quantitative restrictions to tariffs and for a phased reduction of tariffs. The agreement also imposes rules and disciplines on agricultural export subsidies, domestic subsidies, and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures through the
Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, also known as the SPS Agreement or just SPS, is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agree ...


Criticism

Groups such as
Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...
have criticized the Uruguay Round for paying insufficient attention to the needs of developing countries. One aspect of this criticism is that figures very close to rich country industries—such as former
Cargill Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
executive
Dan Amstutz Daniel Gordon Amstutz (November 8, 1932 – March 20, 2006) was an American government official and business executive who played a prominent role during negotiation of the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade rules on agricultu ...
—had a major role in the drafting of Uruguay Round language on agriculture and other matters. As with the WTO in general, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Health Gap and Global Trade Watch also criticize what was negotiated in the Round on intellectual property and industrial tariffs as setting up too many constraints on policy-making and human needs. An article asserts that the developing countries’ lack of experience in WTO negotiations and lack of knowledge of how the developing economies would be affected by what the industrial countries wanted in the WTO new areas; the intensified mercantilist attitude of the GATT/WTO’s major power, the US; the structure of the WTO that made the GATT tradition of decision by consensus ineffective, so that a country would not preserve the status quo, were the reasons for this imbalance.


See also

*
Cairns Group The Cairns Group (Cairns Group of Fair Trading Nations) is an interest group of 19 agricultural exporting countries, composed of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakist ...
- interest group composed of 19 agricultural exporting nations, including Uruguay *
Cultural exception Cultural exception (french: l'exception culturelle) is a political concept introduced by France in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations in 1993 to treat culture differently from other commercial products. In other words, its pu ...
- political concept arguing that culture is to be treated differently than commercial products * Doha Development Round - ongoing trade negotiation round; commenced in 2001 * ''
Golan v. Holder ''Golan v. Holder'', 565 U.S. 302 (2012), was a Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court case that dealt with copyright and the public domain. It held that the "limited time" language of the United States Constitution's Copyright Clause do ...
'', a challenge to the copyright restoration provisions of the
Uruguay Round Agreements Act The Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA; ) is an Act of Congress in the United States that implemented in U.S. law the Marrakesh Agreement of 1994. The Marrakesh Agreement was part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations which transformed the General ...
, the implementation of the Uruguay Round agreements in the
United States Code In the law of the United States, the Code of Laws of the United States of America (variously abbreviated to Code of Laws of the United States, United States Code, U.S. Code, U.S.C., or USC) is the official compilation and codification of the ...
. The Act was upheld. *
Tokyo Round The Tokyo Round was a multi-year multilateral trade negotiation (MTN) between 102 nation-states that were parties to the GATT. The negotiations resulted in reduced tariffs and established new regulations aimed at controlling the proliferation of ...
- trade negotiation round that aimed to control non-tariff barriers and voluntary export restrictions; 1973–79


References


External links


WTO history of the Uruguay Round
* {{Use dmy dates, date=May 2019 Uruguay Diplomatic conferences in Japan Diplomatic conferences in Uruguay Diplomatic conferences in Morocco Diplomatic conferences in Canada Diplomatic conferences in the United States Diplomatic conferences in Switzerland Diplomatic conferences in Belgium General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 20th-century diplomatic conferences 1980s economic history 1990s economic history