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This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English EconomicsReport.
The World Trade Organization is the international system fornegotiating trade issues. The W-T-O was established innineteen-ninety-five. But its roots go back to an agreement madesoon after World War Two. Twenty-three nations approved the GeneralAgreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT, in nineteen-forty-seven.
Three years earlier, the International Monetary Conference hadtaken place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Negotiators succeededin planning two important financial organizations. These are theInternational Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But the negotiatorscould not agree on a proposed organization for international trade.
GATT was meant to be temporary. Trade negotiations under GATTwere carried out in a series of talks, called rounds. The firstround produced cuts in import taxes on one fifth of world trade.
Later rounds produced additional cuts. And negotiators addedother issues. In nineteen-sixty-three, the sixth round began. It wascalled the Kennedy Round, after President John F. Kennedy. He wasshot in Dallas on November twenty-second, nineteen-sixty-three. Thisround of talks ended four years later. The results included anagreement against the trade practice known as dumping. That is whereone country sells a product in another country at an unfairly lowprice.
The eighth round of talks began in Punta del Este, Uruguay, innineteen-eighty-six. The Uruguay Round required seven-and-a-halfyears of meetings and work. In all, one-hundred-twenty-three nationstook part.
The Uruguay Round set time limits for future negotiations. Itdealt with import taxes as well as other trade barriers. It dealtwith protection for intellectual property such as books, music andcomputer programs. The heavily protected trade in clothing andagricultural products also became issues for negotiation.
The nations that took part did not agree on everything. But theydid agree on a new, permanent system to settle disputes. In April ofnineteen-ninety-four, ministers of most of theone-hundred-twenty-three countries signed an agreement. Thisestablished the World Trade Organization.
The W-T-O has replaced the old GATT. But those first agreementsremain the basis of international trade law. Next week -- how theW-T-O operates. This VOA Special English Economics Report waswritten by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty.