GENEVA ROUND (1947)

Time-April 1947-October1947 Duration-7 months Countries-23 United States, Chile, India, Syria, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Myanmar, Lebanon, France, Norway, Cuba, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Belgium, Czechoslovakia. Brazil, China, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Luxembourg,

Negotiations in this and the succeeding 4rounds were on a bilateral basis-: product-by-product, request-offer Members completed 123 negotiations and established 20 schedules containing the tariff reductions, which became an integral part of GATT. The Agreement covered some 45000 tariff concessions and about $10 billion in trade. First Round was successful since the US was.... - enthusiastic for free trade - was willing to cut its tariff on imports from Europe - did not put pressure on European countries to abandon their trade restrictions.

ANNENCY ROUND (1949)

Time- April 1949-August 1949 Duration 5 months Countries- Accession of ten more country (From 23 to 33) Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Haiti, Liberia, Dominican Republic, Italy All Members negotiated an additional 13,000 tariff reductions from last round. Agreement that the accession of a new member country does only two-third majority of all existing member countries

 If a member votes again accession it does not need to extend trade policy concessions to this country Denmark N.land USA France Austria UK Italy Germany 1950 3% 11% 14% 18% 18% 23% 25% 26% Table: Average tariff rates in selected countries on manufactured products .

TORQUAY ROUND (1950/51)

Time- September 1950- April 1951 Duration 8 months Countries- Accession of five more countries (33+5=38) Austria, Germany, Turkey, Philippine, peru

Paticipants completed some 500 negotiations Additional tariff reductions emerging from these negotiations were modest: Negotiations were not considered to be a success Major problem of that Round: Dispute between the US and the UK no bilateral tariff cuts on US UK trade Contracting parties exchanged some 8700 tariff reductions of about 25% in relation to the 1948 level. During the Torquay Round, the US indicated that the ITO Charter would not be re-submitted to the US Congress: End of ITO.

GENEVA ROUND II (1955/56)

Time- January 1956- May 1956 Duration- 5 months From 1951 to 1955, GATT membership increased by only one country on net, with the withdrawal of Libeia being balanced by the accession of Japan The momentum toward lower tariff was lost Important factor behind the passivity during this period: Growing protectionism in the US ( Feeling that the US had given away concessions, while European countries were reluctant in eliminating their trade barriers) Low-tariff countries were frustrated by their inability to bargain effectively with high-tariff countries

 Fourth Round produced similarly not sufficient results($2.5 billion worth of tariff reductions)

DILLON ROUND (1960-62)

Time- September 1960-July 1962 Duration- 11 months Background (last 50s): Average tariff rates differed sharply within the European Economic Community (EEC), ranging from 6% for Germany to 19% for Italy:
Table:Average tariff rates in European countries on manufactured products

1950 1958

Denmark N.land 3% 11% 6% 10%

France 18% 17%

Austria UK 18% 23% 15% 17%

Italy 25% 19%

Germany 26% 6%

The Round was divided into two phases: First phase was concerned for negotiations with EEC member states for the creation of a single schedule of concessions for the EEC based on its Common External Tariff(CET) Second phase was a futher general round of tariff negotiations Round resulted in 4,400 tariff concessions covering $4.9 billion of trade. Last round of negotiations which were undertaken on a bilateral basis: I. Participants came up with lists demanding tariff reductions from their main trading partners. II. These list were the basis for bilateral trade negotiations. III. The Most favored nation principle ensured that all member countries were granted with all trade advantages. In effect, that means no nation will be treated worse than another. As a result of Dillon Round, tariff rates on manufactured goods came down sharply (e.g. common external tariff of the EEC fell to 10.4% in 1968) Agricultural and textile sectors were still not considered