Logo

Synopsis The Uruguay Round of Multilateral Negotiations marked a watershed in the history of the GATT. The final Act embodying the results of Agreement provides a number of agreements creating new international obligations in the area of financial services and extending GATT’s obligations to protection of IPRs, the TRIMs and measures affecting the contestability of service markets. Calls for Post-Uruguay Round negotiation have identified issues such as competition policy, FDI regulations, innovation policies and the interaction between trade and environmental policies, further industrial tariff liberalization, proposals on free trade in information technologies. The LDCs have played a marginal role in the GATT system but this will not be the case under the WTO system. TRIPS Agreement avoids the creation of artificial barriers to entry into high-technology industries. An active presence in the WTO implies a major domestic challenge for most of the LDCs in the next millennium. This series is dedicated to Raul Prebisch who underlined the dynamics of the world economy and the interdependence between the industrial countries of the north and the LDCs of the South.