Uruguay Round

Uruguay Round

Uruguay Round in Global Commerce Policy

In this regard, uruguay round is: multilateral trade negotiations launched at Punta del Este, Uruguay, on 25 September 1986 and concluded in Geneva on 15 December 1993. Signed by Ministers in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 15 April 1994. The objectives of the negotiations were (i) further liberalization and expansion of world trade, (ii) strengthening the role of the GATT and improving the multilateral trading system, (iii) increasing the responsiveness of the GATT to the international economic environment and (iv) foster international cooperative economic action. Participants agreed to a standstill on trade-restrictive measures during the negotiations and a rollback provision. The subjects for negotiations, the widest of any GATT round, were tariffs, non-tariff measures, tropical products as a priority area, natural resource-based products, textiles and clothing, agriculture, review of GATT articles, safeguards, Tokyo Round agreements and arrangements, subsidies and countervailing measures, dispute settlement, trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, trade-related investment measures and the Functioning of the GATT System (FOGS). The entries on trade policy are here. Each of these subjects was managed by a negotiating group established for the purpose. Negotiations on trade in services were to be held on a legally separate track at the insistence of a group of developing countries who did not then accept that services should be covered by the GATT. Ministers agreed that negotiations would conclude within four years. The negotiations can be divided into three stages: (a) from the launch at Punta del Este to the Montreal mid-term review in December 1988, (b) the period from then on up the Brussels Ministerial Meeting in December 1990 which was supposed to mark the end of the negotiations, and (c) the events leading up to the Marrakesh Ministerial Meeting in April 1994. Substantive negotiations ended on 15 December 1993 when the second extension to the United States negotiating authority, the fast-track authority, expired. The Uruguay Round was therefore by far the longest round of multilateral trade negotiations. The entries on trade policy are here. It would be wrong, however, to view it as a continuous set of negotiations. Long stretches of its seven- and-a-half years were spent waiting for this or that participant or group of participants to come to terms with the need for a change in its negotiating position. This was the case especially in the third period when the Blair House Accord was negotiated and then renegotiated. The text of the “first approximation to the Final Act” of the Uruguay Round, submitted by the Director-General of the GATT to the Brussels Ministerial Meeting in December 1990, was in fact very close to the agreement finally adopted at Marrakesh in April 1994. The main achievements of the Uruguay Round included a trade-weighted average tariff cut of 38%, conclusion of the Agreement on Agriculture which brought agricultural trade for the first time under full GATT disciplines, adoption of the GATS, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures, the creation of a unified and predictable dispute settlement mechanism, confirmation of the Trade Policy Review Mechanism, the establishment of the World Trade Organization which administers 15 multilateral and four plurilateral trade agreements. The entries on trade policy in the Encyclopedia are here. Other results of the round were strengthened provisions on anti-dumping, subsidies and safeguards. The new Agreement on Textiles and Clothing will bring this sector under the GATT rules by replacing the Multi-Fibre Arrangement. See also audiovisual services in the Uruguay Round, Cairns Group, Leutwiler Report and Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.[1]

Uruguay Roundin the wold Encyclopedia

For an introductory overview on international trade policy, see this entry.

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Notes and References

  1. Dictionary of Trade Policy, “Uruguay Round” entry (OAS)

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Hierarchical Display of Uruguay Round

Trade > Tariff policy > Tariff policy > Tariff negotiations
Trade > International trade > Trade relations > Trade agreement > TRIMs
Trade > International trade > Trade relations > Trade agreement > GATS
Trade > International trade > Trade relations > Trade agreement > TRIPS

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Thesaurus of Uruguay Round

Trade > Tariff policy > Tariff policy > Tariff negotiations > Uruguay Round
Trade > International trade > Trade relations > Trade agreement > TRIMs > Uruguay Round
Trade > International trade > Trade relations > Trade agreement > GATS > Uruguay Round
Trade > International trade > Trade relations > Trade agreement > TRIPS > Uruguay Round

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