纺织服装政策外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 原文 THE AGREEMENT ON TEXTILES AND CLOTHING Material Source: KI134-Macrory K I134 (V1)-09.tex March 21, 2005 Author: Simon Lester I. Introduction For most of the period after World War II, a special regime has existed for trade in textiles, outside the normal multilateral trade rules. During the Uruguay Round negotiations, however, the GATT contracting parties agreed to integrate textile products into the GATT/WTO system. The means by which this integration would occur was the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (“ATC”), which provides for the gradual integration of these products into normal GATT/WTO rules, to be completed by January 1, 2005. The ATC has proved to be one of the most controversial of the Uruguay Round Agreements. The existence of the ATC is due in large part to what has been described as the “Grand Bargain” struck during the negotiations, under which the developing countries agreed to the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in exchange for greater access to developed country markets for the products of most interest to them—textiles and clothing, and agricultural products. In practice, though, many developing countries have expressed the view that the access that has actually been achieved so far under the ATC (and the Agreement on Agriculture) has been much less than what was promised. The alleged deficiencies in market access for textiles and clothing are said to be due primarily to delays in integrating key products and, at least in the first years of the Agreement, abuse of the special safeguard mechanism in the ATC. This chapter will examine the regulation of trade in textiles from the GATT era up until the present. It will begin by reviewing the origins of the special regime for textiles under the GATT. It will then examine the Uruguay Round negotiations on textiles and clothing, which led to the ATC. Next, it will look at the ATC itself, discussing in detail its