2. Soon after the conclusion of the Tokyo round, countries
started feeling that it would be desirable and necessary to
expand the coverage of multilateral trading system so is to
include new issues such as services, IPR, and investment.
It took seven and a half years, almost twice the original
schedule. By the end, 123 countries were taking part.
The seeds of the Uruguay Round were sown in November
1982 at a ministerial meeting of GATT members in Geneva.
Although the ministers intended to launch a major new
negotiation, it took four more years of exploring, clarifying
issues and ministers agreed to launch the new round.
3. During 1982- 1985 GATT Council Held Special
meetings to review the understanding regarding
Notification, consultation Dispute settlement and
Surveillance of Tokyo round
In 1985 a preparatory committee for the Uruguay round
was established by the contracting parties to determine
the objectives, subject matter for the participation of in
the upcoming round of multilateral negotiations.
Discussed about the agriculture, subsidies, tariffs,
dispute settlement, safeguards etc.
4. In April 1986- the us representative suggested that there
was an urgent need of :
1. To liberalize trade
2. To strengthen the multilateral trading system
3. Need to improve existing GATT Disciplines such as
safeguards, agriculture, dispute settlement etc.
4. Expand the scope of the GATT into areas of growing
economic concern such as services, intellectual
property rights and investment
5. The Ministerial meeting at the special session of the
contracting parties at Punta del este, Uruguay, launched
a new and very broad incomparable to any earlier
rounds of multilateral trade negotiation.
PUNTA DEL ESTE declaration can be summarized as
follow:
First Section: Covering negotiation on trade in goods
consisting of preamble.
Preamble – to negotiate, remove distortions to trade,
preserve GATT and develop multilateral trading system
to promote and development, relevance of the round to
international finance, money and debt, strengthening
the trade and other economic policies.
6. Second section: General principals of negotiations
Third Section: 13 subjects were settled for negotiations,
tariff, nontariff measure, tropical products, natural
resources product, textile and clothing, Agriculture,
GATT articles, safeguards and Arrangements (i.e. codes
negotiated in the Tokyo round), Subsidies and
countervailing measures, Anti Dumping Measures
dispute settlement, trade related aspect of intellectual
property and trade related investment measures and
functioning of GATT system
All the original GATT articles were up for review. It
was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever
agreed, and the ministers gave themselves four years to
complete it
7. Two years later, in December 1988, ministers met again
in Montreal, Canada, for what was supposed to be an
assessment of progress at the round’s half-way point.
The purpose was to clarify the agenda for the
remaining two years, but the talks ended in a deadlock.
Despite the difficulty, during the Montreal meeting,
ministers did agree a package of early results. Aimed at
assisting developing countries as well as a streamlined
dispute settlement system, and the Trade Policy Review
Mechanism which provided for the first
comprehensive, systematic and regular reviews of
national trade policies and practices of GATT members.
8. The round was supposed to end when ministers met
once more in Brussels, in December 1990. But they
disagreed on how to reform agricultural trade and
decided to extend the talks. The Uruguay Round
entered its bleakest period.
Despite the poor political outlook, a considerable
amount of technical work continued, leading to the first
draft of a final legal agreement. This draft “Final Act”
was compiled by the GATT director-general, Arthur
Dunkel, who chaired the negotiations at officials’ level.
It was put on the table in Geneva in December 1991
9. In November 1992, the US and EU settled most of their
differences on agriculture in a deal known informally
as the “Blair House accord”(agreement between the
United States and the European Union on export
subsidy). By July 1993 the “Quad” (US, EU, Japan and
Canada) announced significant progress in negotiations
on tariffs and related subjects. It took until 15
December 1993 for every issue to be finally resolved.
On 15 April 1994, the deal was signed by ministers
from most of the 123 participating governments at a
meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco. The WTO replaced
GATT as an international organization, but the General
Agreement still exists as the WTO’s umbrella treaty for
trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay
Round negotiations..
10. The Doha Round is the latest round of trade negotiations
among the WTO membership. Its aim is to achieve major
reform of the international trading system through the
introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules.
The work programme covers about 20 areas of trade. The
Round is also known semi-officially as the Doha
Development Agenda as a fundamental objective is to
improve the trading prospects of developing countries.
11. The Round was officially launched at the WTO’s
Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in
November 2001.
The Doha Ministerial Declaration provided the
mandate for the negotiations, including on agriculture,
services and an intellectual property topic, which began
earlier.
In Doha, ministers also approved a decision on how to
address the problems developing countries face in
implementing the current WTO agreements.
12. There were additional reasons for the negotiations. Just
months before the Doha Ministerial, the United States
had been attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001.
Some government officials saw the trade negotiations
as a means toward that end. Some officials thought that
a new round of multilateral trade negotiations could
help a world economy weakened by recession and
terrorism-related uncertainty. According to the WTO,
the year 2001 showed “the lowest growth in output in
more than two decades,”
13. The Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public
Health presents a political interpretation of the WTO
Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS). A document on Implementation-
Related Issues and Concerns includes numerous
decisions of interest to developing countries
14. At that meeting, they adopted three documents that
provided guidance for future actions. The Ministerial
Declaration includes a preamble and a work program
for the new round and for other future action. This
Declaration folded the ongoing negotiations in
agriculture and services into a broader agenda. That
agenda includes industrial tariffs, topics of interest to
developing countries, changes to WTO rules, and other
provisions.
