The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (106 page)
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GAT
(General Agreement on Trade in Services)
(General Agreement on Trade in Services)
The Uruguay Round of
GATT
negotiations included a legally distinct series of negotiations to bring the services sector of the global economy under GATT disciplines and dispute settlement procedures, despite substantial initial resistance from less-developed countries. The successful accord or GATS is now under the umbrella of the
World Trade Organization
(WTO), which succeeds GATT as the core of the multilateral trade regime.
GU
GATT
negotiations included a legally distinct series of negotiations to bring the services sector of the global economy under GATT disciplines and dispute settlement procedures, despite substantial initial resistance from less-developed countries. The successful accord or GATS is now under the umbrella of the
World Trade Organization
(WTO), which succeeds GATT as the core of the multilateral trade regime.
GU
GATT
(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
The 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) emerged from wartime and postwar negotiations ( see
Bretton Woods
) to establish a stable, multilateral economic order. The lengthy negotiating process (1944–7) reflected the controversial nature of the politics of international trade at domestic and international levels of bargaining: changing patterns of international trade could have dramatic and fairly immediate effects on domestic employment and income levels within and among national economies. While it has never proved possible to gain broad agreement on the extent of liberalization in most domains of international trade, it was accepted that the unilateralist and discriminatory practices of the interwar period had had particularly negative consequences for all concerned.
GATT itself was an interim accord which sought to codify the rules of the emerging trade regime and to proceed with important reductions in national barriers to trade. The US delegation was determined to press other countries to reduce their discriminatory trade practices (particularly the British ‘
Imperial Preference
’) and in exchange the United States was willing to reduce its traditionally high tariffs. The USSR and its allies remained outside GATT, only considering membership at the end of the
Cold War
in 1989.
The GATT agreement enunciated the principles of reciprocity and non-discrimination, encapsulated in the
Most Favoured Nation
(MFN) and National Treatment concepts. National Treatment implies that governments cannot treat foreign exporting firms any less favourably than domestic producers. Reciprocity meant that any negotiations among trading partners were to yield roughly reciprocal concessions and/or benefits in the eyes of the parties. Non-discrimination meant that any trade concession advanced by a country to one GATT trading partner had to be extended to all others simultaneously. In this way, negotiations among trading parties would be ‘multilateralized’, leading to the establishment of a liberal trading order.
The GATT proceeded with attempts at liberalization throughout the 1950s, called negotiating ‘Rounds’. Progress was difficult due to the weak state of most economies emerging from the war, and the extraordinary competitive edge of American industry at the time. Most economies would have experienced severe balance-of-payments difficulties had they removed barriers to imports, and domestic employment would have been adversely affected as well. As postwar recovery rendered more liberal trading policies acceptable, the American government sought to replace the piecemeal approach with reciprocal across-the-board tariff cuts by all participating parties on a wide range of traded products. This initiative developed into the ‘Kennedy Round’ agreements of June 1967 which stands as a watershed in postwar trade liberalization. Tariffs on manufactured goods were reduced by 36 per cent on average, and this progress was continued in the later Tokyo Round (1974–9).
The United States had originally taken unilateral measures to keep agricultural trade out of the GATT process in 1955, but had reversed this position in the Kennedy Round. This led to a long-running conflict with the EU (with its CAP, which represented a delicate internal compromise difficult to disturb) and Japan, both with protected agricultural markets. Agriculture is still central to conflict over the trade regime, and held up the Uruguay Round of negotiations (completed in December 1993).
As tariffs were lowered, so-called nontariff barriers (NTBs) became the remaining instruments of trade policy. Examples were Voluntary Export Restraint agreements and Orderly Marketing Arrangements, running against the spirit of GATT. As these were ‘voluntary’, GATT rules theoretically did not apply. Furthermore, the principles of liberalization called into question many economic policy measures associated with successful national economic development strategies in the postwar period, particularly in Japan, Europe, and the developing world. Finally, the Less Developed Countries sought exemption from many of GATT's rules, pointing out that their weak economies benefited little from free trade arrangements. All governments abused the escape clauses in GATT and attempts have been made to tighten up the rules over time. None of these disputes are likely to be resolved in any permanent fashion; it is the nature of the eventual compromise which will be crucial to the continued success of GATT. There none the less remains broad agreement on the need to continue the momentum of the liberalization process. The Uruguay Round negotiations successfully expanded the scope of GATT. It now includes multilateral rules applied to the services sector ( see
GATS
), intellectual property, and some aspects of agricultural trade. The Round also ended the provisional status of GATT by establishing the World Trade Organization with an enhanced institutional framework and dispute settlement procedure.
The emergence of the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and other nascent regional arrangements such as the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum (APEC), are potential challenges to GATT. So far these regional arrangements have not emerged as discriminatory trading blocs, and GATT expressly permits regional economic integration if compatible with GATT rules. However, despite the ultimate success of the Uruguay Round, regional arrangements and indeed bilateral/unilateral solutions (especially on the part of the United States) may become the order of the day if ongoing agreement cannot be reached on outstanding issues. However, global companies would be likely to put up stiff resistance to any attempt to substantially restrict the liberal or global nature of the trade regime.
GU
Bretton Woods
) to establish a stable, multilateral economic order. The lengthy negotiating process (1944–7) reflected the controversial nature of the politics of international trade at domestic and international levels of bargaining: changing patterns of international trade could have dramatic and fairly immediate effects on domestic employment and income levels within and among national economies. While it has never proved possible to gain broad agreement on the extent of liberalization in most domains of international trade, it was accepted that the unilateralist and discriminatory practices of the interwar period had had particularly negative consequences for all concerned.
GATT itself was an interim accord which sought to codify the rules of the emerging trade regime and to proceed with important reductions in national barriers to trade. The US delegation was determined to press other countries to reduce their discriminatory trade practices (particularly the British ‘
Imperial Preference
’) and in exchange the United States was willing to reduce its traditionally high tariffs. The USSR and its allies remained outside GATT, only considering membership at the end of the
Cold War
in 1989.
The GATT agreement enunciated the principles of reciprocity and non-discrimination, encapsulated in the
Most Favoured Nation
(MFN) and National Treatment concepts. National Treatment implies that governments cannot treat foreign exporting firms any less favourably than domestic producers. Reciprocity meant that any negotiations among trading partners were to yield roughly reciprocal concessions and/or benefits in the eyes of the parties. Non-discrimination meant that any trade concession advanced by a country to one GATT trading partner had to be extended to all others simultaneously. In this way, negotiations among trading parties would be ‘multilateralized’, leading to the establishment of a liberal trading order.
The GATT proceeded with attempts at liberalization throughout the 1950s, called negotiating ‘Rounds’. Progress was difficult due to the weak state of most economies emerging from the war, and the extraordinary competitive edge of American industry at the time. Most economies would have experienced severe balance-of-payments difficulties had they removed barriers to imports, and domestic employment would have been adversely affected as well. As postwar recovery rendered more liberal trading policies acceptable, the American government sought to replace the piecemeal approach with reciprocal across-the-board tariff cuts by all participating parties on a wide range of traded products. This initiative developed into the ‘Kennedy Round’ agreements of June 1967 which stands as a watershed in postwar trade liberalization. Tariffs on manufactured goods were reduced by 36 per cent on average, and this progress was continued in the later Tokyo Round (1974–9).
The United States had originally taken unilateral measures to keep agricultural trade out of the GATT process in 1955, but had reversed this position in the Kennedy Round. This led to a long-running conflict with the EU (with its CAP, which represented a delicate internal compromise difficult to disturb) and Japan, both with protected agricultural markets. Agriculture is still central to conflict over the trade regime, and held up the Uruguay Round of negotiations (completed in December 1993).
As tariffs were lowered, so-called nontariff barriers (NTBs) became the remaining instruments of trade policy. Examples were Voluntary Export Restraint agreements and Orderly Marketing Arrangements, running against the spirit of GATT. As these were ‘voluntary’, GATT rules theoretically did not apply. Furthermore, the principles of liberalization called into question many economic policy measures associated with successful national economic development strategies in the postwar period, particularly in Japan, Europe, and the developing world. Finally, the Less Developed Countries sought exemption from many of GATT's rules, pointing out that their weak economies benefited little from free trade arrangements. All governments abused the escape clauses in GATT and attempts have been made to tighten up the rules over time. None of these disputes are likely to be resolved in any permanent fashion; it is the nature of the eventual compromise which will be crucial to the continued success of GATT. There none the less remains broad agreement on the need to continue the momentum of the liberalization process. The Uruguay Round negotiations successfully expanded the scope of GATT. It now includes multilateral rules applied to the services sector ( see
GATS
), intellectual property, and some aspects of agricultural trade. The Round also ended the provisional status of GATT by establishing the World Trade Organization with an enhanced institutional framework and dispute settlement procedure.
The emergence of the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and other nascent regional arrangements such as the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum (APEC), are potential challenges to GATT. So far these regional arrangements have not emerged as discriminatory trading blocs, and GATT expressly permits regional economic integration if compatible with GATT rules. However, despite the ultimate success of the Uruguay Round, regional arrangements and indeed bilateral/unilateral solutions (especially on the part of the United States) may become the order of the day if ongoing agreement cannot be reached on outstanding issues. However, global companies would be likely to put up stiff resistance to any attempt to substantially restrict the liberal or global nature of the trade regime.
GU
Gaullism
French political movement, originally associated with Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) and the wartime Resistance. It subsequently provided a base for his opposition to the
Fourth Republic
, with his insistence that only a strong executive presidency could defend French sovereignty and national independence, guarantee consensus and social cohesion, and promote rapid modernization. There have been numerous Gaullist parties, mirroring de Gaulle's long political career, from his opposition to the Fourth Republic to the defeat of the 1969 referendum, his subsequent retirement, and his death in 1970. A strongly pragmatic and flexible movement, with little in the way of ideology, Gaullism has undergone further change under the General's successors. The postwar Rally of the French People (RPF), with its militant nationalist and anti-regime views, contrasted with the accommodating conservatism of Georges Pompidou's Union for the Defence of the Republic (UDR), although there were some similarities with Jacques Chirac's stridently populist Rally for the Republic (RPR).
In spite of not having elected a President between 1974 and 1995, the Gaullists are the only disciplined, massbased organization on the right. Defeated in 1981, the right regained their majority in the legislature in 1986, with the Gaullists providing the leadership in the new government. Its programme underlined the extent to which Chirac, Prime Minister from 1986 to 1988, had departed from Gaullist orthodoxy by embracing economic liberalism, privatization of the state sector, rejecting interventionism and central planning, and advocating closer European integration and the Single Market. As Prime Minister he also questioned the powers of the Presidency even in the areas of defence and foreign affairs. After the brief experiment in cohabitation Chirac failed to secure the Presidency for the Gaullists in 1988, but succeeded in 1995.
IC
Fourth Republic
, with his insistence that only a strong executive presidency could defend French sovereignty and national independence, guarantee consensus and social cohesion, and promote rapid modernization. There have been numerous Gaullist parties, mirroring de Gaulle's long political career, from his opposition to the Fourth Republic to the defeat of the 1969 referendum, his subsequent retirement, and his death in 1970. A strongly pragmatic and flexible movement, with little in the way of ideology, Gaullism has undergone further change under the General's successors. The postwar Rally of the French People (RPF), with its militant nationalist and anti-regime views, contrasted with the accommodating conservatism of Georges Pompidou's Union for the Defence of the Republic (UDR), although there were some similarities with Jacques Chirac's stridently populist Rally for the Republic (RPR).
In spite of not having elected a President between 1974 and 1995, the Gaullists are the only disciplined, massbased organization on the right. Defeated in 1981, the right regained their majority in the legislature in 1986, with the Gaullists providing the leadership in the new government. Its programme underlined the extent to which Chirac, Prime Minister from 1986 to 1988, had departed from Gaullist orthodoxy by embracing economic liberalism, privatization of the state sector, rejecting interventionism and central planning, and advocating closer European integration and the Single Market. As Prime Minister he also questioned the powers of the Presidency even in the areas of defence and foreign affairs. After the brief experiment in cohabitation Chirac failed to secure the Presidency for the Gaullists in 1988, but succeeded in 1995.
IC
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