Chapter 1国际商务英语阅读.pptxVIP

CHAPTER 1General View of International BusinessText 1 GATT and WTO Background Knowledge In July1944，finance ministers from the Allied nations gathered in Bretton Woods of Washington to discuss the creation of a new international monetary system that would support postwar reconstruction, economic stability, and peace. The Bretton Woods Conference produced two of the most important international economic institutions of the postwar period: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank). In 1947 the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed----a treaty whereby 23 member countries agreed to a set of rules to govern trade with one another and maintained reduced import tariffs for other members.Over the next 40 years, GATT grew in membership and in its success at reducing barriers to trade. GATT members regularly met in what came to be known as negotiating rounds which were primarily focused on negotiating further reductions in the maximum tariffs that countries could impose on imports from other GATT members.The success of these rounds is evident. Tariffs on manufactured products fell from a trade-weighted average of roughly 35 percent before the creation of GATT in 1947 to about 6.4 percent at the start of the Uruguay Round in 1986. Over the same time period, the volume of trade among GATT members surged: This growth in the volume of trade is impressive and appears to have accelerated in recent decades. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) have been enormously successful over the last 50 years at reducing tariff and other trade barriers among an ever-increasing number of countries. GATTorigin PurposeProcedures:8 rounds of GATT talks :23 signatory countriesProviding a process to reduce tariffs and created an agency to serve as a watchdog over world trade. Member nations seek to resolve their trade disputes bilater