THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE

THE TEXT OF THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE Text of the General Agreement GENEVA, JULY 1986 PREFACE The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade came into force on 1 January 1948. This booklet contains the complete text of the General Agreement together with all amendments which have become effective since its entry into force. The text is identical to that published, since 1969, as Volume IV in the series Basic Instruments and Selected Documents. A guide to the legal sources of the provisions of the Agreement is provided in an appendix. An Analytical Index, containing notes on the drafting, interpretation and application of the articles of the Agreement has been prepared and published by the secretariat. A second publication, complementary to this one, contains the text of the agreements reached as a result of the Tokyo Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (1973-1979). The General Agreement is applied "provisionally" by all contracting parties. The original contracting parties, and also those former territories of Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom which, after attaining independence, acceded to the General Agreement under Article XXVI:5(c), apply the GATT under the Protocol of Provisional Application, the text of which is reproduced in this volume. Chile applies the General Agreement under a Special Protocol of September 1948. The contracting parties which have acceded since 1948 apply the General Agreement under their respective Protocols of Accession. For the convenience of the reader, asterisks mark the portions of the text which should be read in conjunction with notes and supplementary provisions in Annex I to the Agreement. In accordance with Article XXXIV, Annexes A to I are an integral part of the Agreement. The Schedules of tariff concessions annexed to the General Agreement (not here reproduced) are also, in accordance with Article II:7, an integral part of the Agreement. By the Decision of 23 March 1965, the CONTRACTING PARTIES changed the title of the head of the GATT secretariat from "Executive Secretary" to "Director-General". However, in the absence of an amendment to the General Agreement to take account of this change, the title "Executive Secretary" has been retained in the text of Articles XVIII:12(e), XXIII:2 and XXVI:4, 5 and 6. The Decision of 23 March 1965 provides that the duties and powers conferred upon the Executive Secretary by the General Agreement "shall be exercised by the person holding the position of Director-General, who shall, for this purpose, also hold the position of Executive Secretary". ... - tailieumienphi.vn