| The thesis reviews the 50 year history of the GATT/WTO trading system in order to assess how far the system has achieved the goals and objectives of its principal founders, with a view to recommending proposals for completing the same in the context of the next major round of WTO negotiations. Emphasis is laid throughout the work on actions which need to be taken to ensure that the world trade system has a set of integrated rules which address the realities of increasing international economic interdependence. The conclusion of this work incorporates various steps that can be taken towards achieving this objective.; A principal thesis of this work is that the actual achievements of the GATT/WTO system are less than those intended by Cordell Hull, the principal founder of what became the initial GATT arrangements, and, accordingly, a series of proposals are advanced to complete Hull's original vision. Most significantly, important elements of the failed Havana Charter, which was to establish the International Trade Organization (ITO), have yet to be incorporated into present GATT/WTO disciplines. In particular, the Havana Charter included provisions dealing with investment and private restraints on trade, which are now indispensable, as contemporary restrictions on the ability to truly contest international markets originate more from the internal structuring of domestic markets, rather than from border measures. This reality has been recognized in regional trading arrangements, and, accordingly, an examination of the principal non-multilateral trading systems is made in this respect, particularly the European Union, and the NAFTA. Based on a review of the need for the same, this work proposes new WTO disciplines for investment and competition policy, as well as a series of proposals to facilitate regulatory reform in services, the area in which they are most needed. Finally, a series of proposals are made to restructure the basic WTO agreements to remove inconsistencies which have evolved in the last 50 yews, and to facilitate truly effective P. market access, i.e. the ability to actually contest international markets. Collectively, these proposals are fundamental prerequisites to the orderly operation of the contemporary world trading system. |
