从GATT到WTO

Task 5

From GATT to WTO

--- The Institutionalization of World Trade

(Part One ) 从GATT到WTO ——世界贸易的制度化

(第一部分)

Over the past few decades, a system of relatively open exchange, particularly in merchandise trade, has prevailed in the world under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Today, most economists acknowledge this trading system as one of the greatest contributors to the world’s rapid recovery from the desolation of the Second World War, and to the phenomenal growth in the world output thereafter. Through all of those years, however, GATT has served its contracting parties through a loose and informal structure, with all the inevitable problems that accompany a weak and ill-defined authority. With the passage of the Uruguay Round of trade talks, this trading system is poised to take on a new shape in a permanent institution known as the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although much skepticism and controversy have surrounded the birth of WTO, it is the hope of all free-traders that the new WTO will be able to amend what went amiss with GATT.

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过去的几十年里，受益于关税及贸易总协定（GATT）的保护，整个世界，特别是货物贸易，都处于一个相对开放的贸易体系中。今天，大多数经济学家都认为，世界经济之所以从二战的萧条中迅速恢复以及世界出口总量猛涨，这一贸易体系做出了重大贡献。然而,这些年来,GATT是以一种松散、非正式的结构服务各缔约国,其权威较小且定义模糊，因此不可避免的产生许多问题。随着乌拉圭回合贸易谈判的成功,这一交易体系准备以一种全新的、永久性的机构形式呈现，即世界贸易组织(WTO)。对于成立WTO，尽管怀疑和争议不断,但所有自由贸易的倡议者都希望新成立的WTO能够弥补GATT的不足的。

A Brief History of Trade 贸易简史

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, economists began to make advances in interpreting why human beings had always engaged in economic exchange. The theory of comparative advantage posited that countries specialize in those goods and services that they produce more efficiently relative to other countries. When nations concentrate their production on commodities in which they have a comparative advantage, consumers as a whole benefit from lower prices and a greater range of consumption possibilities. Because each good is produced by the country that is best at producing it, scarce world resources are allocated efficiently. Like all economic activities, the distribution of the benefits of trade is not

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uniform; yet in general and in the long run, trade leads to a more optimal economic outcome with greater competition and greater productivity --- a rising tide on which all boats float.

十九世纪初,经济学家在解释人类为什么会一直从事经济交易方面取得进展。比较优势理论设定,国家应该专门生产相较于其他国家更具有优势的商品和服务。当国家集中生产有比较优势的商品时,整体说来，消费者能够从低价以及一系列消费优惠中受益。因为商品都由最擅长生产该商品的国家生产，稀缺资源能够在世界范围内有效分配。和其他所有经济活动一样，贸易受益分配也并不是统一的。但是，从整体上以及长远来看，由于竞争更加激烈、生产率提高，贸易会带来更有益的经济效益—水涨了所有船都会升高。

In 1947, such a view of the benefits of international cooperation inspired a group of visionaries gathered in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to erect a new economic world order from the ravages of the Second World War. The Bretton Woods Accords, which celebrated their fiftieth anniversary last year, established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and led to the creation of GATT. These structures, albeit not always true to the visionary spirit in which they were founded, have formed the underpinnings of world economic development for the past half century.

1947年，这种全球合作能带来利益的观点激发了一群有远见卓识的人聚集在新罕布什尔州的布雷顿森林，重建二战后新的世界经济

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秩序。根据布雷顿森林协定，建立了世界银行和国际货币基金组织，并促成了GATT，今年恰好是雷顿森林协定确立第50周年。这些结构框架虽然并不总是与其当初成立时的精神相符，但在过去半个世纪里，却为世界经济的发展奠定了基础。

GATT has become the framework for international trade in our time. The body was formed as an interim secretariat for trade negotiations after the United States, bowing to protectionist sentiment, refused to ratify the charter of the stillborn International Trade Organization, a full-fledged institution of the stature of the World Bank and the IMF.

如今，GATT已成为国际贸易的框架。但是在成立之初，GATT只充当美国在贸易谈判中的临时秘书处的角色，屈从于贸易保护思潮，拒绝批准当时尚未成立的国际贸易组织章程，这一组织后来成为和世界银行、国际货币基金组织有相同地位的成熟机构。

Based in Geneva and currently encompassing over 120 contracting parties, GATT has acted as a conduit for multilateral negotiations on a variety of international trade issues, including tariff and quota policy and trading practices. It has sponsored several rounds of protracted, though eventually fruitful, trade talks where contracting parties gathered to hammer out the details of the set of rules governing economic exchange. GATT panels make recommendations on changes in trade regulations and review complaints against contracting parties.

GATT总部位于日内瓦，目前拥有超过120个缔约国，自成立以

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来一直为一系列国际贸易事务开展多边谈判提供一个平台，包括关税和配额政策以及贸易实践等?。同时，GATT还发起过多轮周期长但成果颇丰的贸易谈判，各缔约国一起协商制定出经济交流规制的细节?。GATT同时也为各缔约国提供贸易规则变更方面的建议并审查针对各缔约国的申诉。

Despite GATT’ success in coordinating international trade policy, it must be remembered that GATT is only an interim body without a fully-defined institutional structure and with little legal enforcement power. For instance, many loopholes exist in the mechanism dealing with disputes regarding unfair trade practices. If a country complains of unfair trading practices on the part of another country and a GATT panel concurs with the complaint, the accused country can dissent from the finding, effectively vetoing it and preventing the complaining country from retaliation within the GATT framework. Another increasingly popular way of doing business in an extra-GATT environment is through the creation of regional trade blocs, such as the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the impending Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreements. These regional agreements, in effect, set their own rules of trade, encouraging cooperative exchange within a bloc but hinting of protectionism against countries outside the region. Non-tariff trade barriers (NTBs), such as a German requirement that, for health reasons,

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