GATT, WTO, and U.S. Trade Law

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) establishes rules for the conduct of trade by more than 85 contracting countries and some 30 countries who apply GATT to their own foreign trade. GATT also functions as the primary international forum for the multilateral discussion of trade relations and the negotiation of reduced trade barriers. It is founded on a few basic principles: (1) a basic mandate for multilateral consultation to the real equitable resolution of trade disputes; (2) the general prohibition of quantitative restrictions upon imports; (3) an emphasis upon nondiscrimination through the use of "most favored nation" status by contracting countries; and (4) protection for domestic industries should only be through the use of customs tariffs, rather than nontariff measures.

GATT establishes a standard of material injury for both antidumping and countervailing duty measures, stating that no such measure shall be levied unless there is a determination "that the effect of the dumping or subsidization . . . is such as to cause or threaten material injury to an established domestic industry, or is such as to retard materially the establishment of a domestic industry." Prior to the enactment of the Trad

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untervailing duties in that it can be invoked in the absence of any unfair trade practices while they are intended to protect the United States domestic industry from unfair trade practices. The injury test provision in the escape clause differs from the antidumping law in that it contains a "serious injury" test, requires a "substantial cause," and does not mention injury to an industry not yet established. This lack of protection for new industries follows a similar interpretation of the escape clause in GATT. The GATT Working Party said that such protection should more properly come under a provision such as Article XVIII, rather than Article XIX. Section 301 provides some of the most far reaching remedies for unfair trade practices in United States trade law. It is roughly the counterpart of the GATT consultation and dispute settlement procedures, permitting U.S. authorities to impose import restrictions as retaliatory action to enforce U.S. rights under any trade agreement. It also permits the United States to respond to unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory foreign trade practices which burden or restrict U.S. commerce. Section 301 can apply to both U.S. exports and imports. Section 301 does not req
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Approximate Word count = 1282
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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