The Erosion of the GATT Framework

Dilip Das
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Dilip Das: Indian Institute of Management

Chapter 4 in International Trade Policy: A Developing Country Perspective, 1990, pp 72-86 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Inasmuch as free trade is in the interest of all countries, one wonders why a formal structure of co-operation is needed at all. Yet it was largely due to the GATT that the tariff walls came down, and now it is the principal line of defence against the new upsurge of protectionism. Again, it is the only international body which is concerned with control over and elimination of the non-tariff barriers which impede international trade and distort competition. The GATT is largely needed because the politics of free trade is much trickier than the economics. The GATT framework has, essentially, been devised for the marketoriented economic system, under which the difference between international and domestic prices would be the main determinant of international trade flows. Admittedly, it is an idealistic vision of the GATT, which, in reality, like any other international agreement, is a product of compromises. It has been inspired by the interwar experience of trade restrictions, bilateralism, uncertainty and the ultimate collapse of the international trading system.

Keywords: International Trade; Free Trade; World Trade; Trading System; Trade Diversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-37925-1_4

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230379251_4

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