Author: Commission of the European Communities

Publisher:

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 8

ISBN-13:

At its meeting on November 20 the Council of Ministers finally approved the Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) concluded under the Tokyo Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), initialled last April. This means that, dependent on the expected ratification by the USA, Canada and Japan, the new agreements will start to take effect from January 1, 1980. In its detailed analysis of the agreements the European Commission considers that the MTN largely achieved the objectives which the Community set itself at the beginning of the negotiations except for the question of safeguards, wheat and coarse grain. The major achievement was agreement by the USA, Japan, and the Community to reduce tariffs by about one-third over the next eight years, which should encourage trade and allow the Community wiser access to its competitors' markets. In addition, the adoption of a series of code and legal texts on customs valuation, anti-dumping, subsidies and compensating duties, licensing procedures and so on, should contribute to a more orderly trade in the 1980s. The Commission is also pleased that Community policy was realised in that the needs and problems of developing countries have been taken into accountnegotiatingting the agreements.