Suchergebnisse

In a communique issued by the Inter-national Tin Council on January 27, 1959, it was announced that the Soviet Union had agreed to limit its tin exports outside the socialist countries to 13,500 tons in 1959, a reduction over the exports in 1958. According to the press, the Council had been in conflict with the Soviet Union over the amount of the latter's exports in 1958, which were believed to have been 18,000 tons. As stated in the communique, the result of the negotiations between the Council and the Soviet Union was no more than an understanding.

General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeThe ninth session of the contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ended on March 7, 1955. The principal obstacles to agreement before late January were felt to have been the reluctance of the United States to modify its policies on import quotas on agricultural products, the reluctance of countries adversely affected by this practice to give up their right to restrict imports of manufactures so long as the quotas continued, lack of agreement on extension of the previously negotiated tariff schedules beyond June 30, 1955, the question of agricultural subsidies as a whole, the exceptions to GATT to be permitted to a country in balance of payments difficulties, and the quantitative restrictions to be permitted under-developed countries.

General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeThe ninth session of the thirty-four contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade opened in Geneva on October 28, 1954, under the chairmanship of Mr. L. Dana Wilgress (Canada). A number of non-member states and inter-governmental organizations sent observers to the session, whose work was divided into two parts: discussion of the normal business of GATT, which extended from October 28 through November 7, and consideration of proposals for the revision of GATT, which would expire in mid-1955, and for transforming it into a more permanent organization.

Eighth Session of Contracting Parties: The Contracting Parties of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade held their eighth session in Geneva from September 17 through October 24, 1953. Johan Melander (Norway) and Akhtar Hassain (Pakistan) were elected chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the session, at which delegates of the 34 contracting parties took part.

The Ad Hoc Committee for Intersessional Business established by the parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade met in Geneva from February 2, 1953 to consider Japan's request to become a contracting party. On February 15, it was provisionally agreed that no special modifications or additions to the agreement would be necessary to incorporate Japan. The committee recommended that speedy procedures for granting relief be provided should the admission of Japan have any of the "unfortunate consequences" some members were reported to foresee. Such a procedure, the committee pointed out, was provided in Article 23 of the agreement by which any party could be relieved from the obligation to refrain from discriminating against another party if the contracting parties as a group decided that such relief would further the general objectives of the agreement.

The seventh session of the Contracting Parties to GATT met at Geneva, Switzerland from October 2 to November 10, 1952 under the chairmanship of Johan Melander (Norway). Participating were delegates of the 34 countries which were contracting parties and observers from other governments and intergovernmental organizations. The seventh session was concerned primarily with items arising out of the operation of GATT, including items falling under the complaints procedure, tariffs and tariff negotiations, miscellaneous items proposed by governments and non-governmental organizations and the administration of GATT. Apart from an agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria concerning reciprocal concessions to the tariff agreement which had been concluded in 1951 within the framework of the Torquay Tariff Conference, no tariff negotiations were undertaken during the session. In connection with the reduction of tariff levels, the contracting parties reexamined the French plan for lowering tariffs by 30 percent on a worldwide basis in three yearly stages and the contracting parties instructed working parties to continue studies of the question.

Under the terms of the extension of the time limit for the signing of the Torquay Protocol, granted by the sixth session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the protocol was signed by the United Kingdom on December 19 and by Denmark on December 21, 1951, bringing to 31 the number of signatories. On December 27, Brazil notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Lie) of its intention to apply the tariff concessions of the Annecy Protocol and on December 31, 1951, India signed the First Protocol of Rectifications and Modifications and the First Protocol of Supplementary Concessions to GATT. The number of the contracting parties to GATT was increased to 34 with the accession, during the sixth session, of Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Peru and Turkey.

The Governing Body's 116th session was held at Geneva, on June 30, 1951. Having elected its new chairman (Mr. Paul Ramadier) and vice-chairmen (Sir J. F. Watson and Mr. Léon Jouhaux), the Governing Body reappointed its various standing committees for the duration of its three year term of office and appointed its representatives on the Joint Maritime Commission. Delegations were also appointed to attend the Migration Conference (Naples, 2–16 October, 1951), the fourth session of the Inland Transport Committee (Genoa, 4–15 December, 1951), the Meeting of Experts on Women's Work (Geneva, 11–15 December, 1951), the third session of the Asian Advisory Committee (Geneva, 10–13 November, 1951), and the sixth session of the General Assembly.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1951 indicated a general improvement in balance of payments, world production, and trade, although serious dollar shortages still existed in some countries. The outbreak of hostilities in Korea, however, and the expanded rearmament programs had produced shortages of raw materials and skilled labor, rises in prices and changes in the terms of trade of many countries. The report stressed the importance of using monetary and fiscal measures as well as measures of direct control to combat inflationary tendencies in order to prevent "situations of latent inflation". It was believed that the present pattern of world payments was not a stable one and that it would become so only following an increase in production outside of the United States and a better relationship between prices of primary and industrial goods.

Six additional governments — Austria, German Federal Republic, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Turkey became eligible to accede to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. By June 20,1951 each of the six governments had received the required two-thirds majority under the terms of the agreement. To complete requirements for accession, each was obliged to sign the Torquay Protocol by October 21, 1951.

In the period from November 20, 1950, to March 20, 1951, the Fund was consulted in connection with the modification of foreign exchange systems by three of its member governments. On November 20 the Fund announced its agreement to certain modifications proposed by the government of Iran. Iran was to continue to retain in effect three foreign exchange rates: 1) an official rate, 32.5 rials to the dollar, for governmental transactions and transactions with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company; 2) a certificate rate, 40 rials to the dollar, for essential imports; and 3) a third rate for exports other than oil and for nonessential imports. The latter rate, which formerly had been permitted to fluctuate in a free market, was fixed at 48.75 rials to the dollar and all transactions were to be conducted through official banks. The Fund and the Iranian government were to continue consultations towards the eventual unification of the Iranian foreign exchange system. Agreement was announced on March 3 to the proposed devaluation of Paraguayan currency from 3.09 to 6 guaranies to the dollar. Consultations between Paraguay and the Fund had also been held, according to the announcement, on the modification of the country's multiple currency system. A further announcement of March 20 revealed that Columbia had proposed to the Fund measures to simplify its foreign exchange system and reduce its restrictions on imports. The new system, to which the Fund gave its approval, would not involve a change in Columbia's par value as fixed by the Fund. A new exchange rate of 2.50 pesos to the dollar was established for all foreign exchange payments and all foreign exchange proceeds other than those for coffee exports. For a period of not less than six months, 25 percent of the coffee export exchange would operate at the new rate and the remaining 75 percent would operate at a buying rate of 1.95 pesos to the dollar. All licensing restrictions on imports would be removed, with the exception of a prohibited list of specified luxury products, and the differential exchange taxes, other than a uniform stamp tax, and all mixed rate arrangements would be abolished. The Fund announced on March 19 the establishment of the initial par value for the Pakistani rupee at 3.30852 rupees to the dollar, the rate proposed by the government of Pakistan.

In the annual report covering the period July 1, 1949 to June 30, 1950, J. Donald Kingsley, the Director-General of IRO, stated that the organization began the year covered in the report with a total caseload of 694,823 refugees and at the end of June 1950 the total caseload had been reduced to 539,579 refugees; the over-all reduction resulted from 4,759 refugees who had been repatriated and the 264,078 refugees who had been resettled. The reductions, however, were offset by 195,950 new registrations, many of which came as a result of the announcement of the cut-off date for new applications for assistance (August 31, 1949). Mr. Kingsley reported that the resettlement program had not progressed as rapidly as had been expected and that final figures had fallen short of the estimated 343,000 because: western Europe which had absorbed large numbers in the past was unable to accept any further large labor resettlement; the volume of visa issuance for the United States had declined; and the anticipated curtailment of the Australian scheme for resettlement had become a reality in the last quarter of the year. The Director-General made a supplementary report on August 30, 1950 in which he stated it was impossible for IRO to complete its work by March 31, 1951 and noted that the amended United States Displaced Persons Act had expanded resettlement opportunities by providing approximately 140,000 openings and admission to 54,000 Volkesdeutsche (persons of Germanic ethnic origin). At the request of the United States Displaced Persons Commission, IRO had undertaken to transport the Volkesdeutsche group to the United States on a reimbursable basis.

Tariff negotiations were to commence September 28 at Torquay, England between the contracting parties of GATT. In August the United States announced its intention to negotiate with Cuba at the September meeting in addition to the 23 previously named countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Sweden, Turkey, Union of South Africa and the United Kingdom). It was announced that Nicaragua had become the first Central American republic to approve GATT.

General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeFourth Meeting of the Contracting Parties:The contracting parties of GATT concluded their fourth meeting in Geneva on April 4, 1950. The group made arrangements for the third round of negotiations between the contracting parties to begin on September 28, in Torquay, England. One important project of the meeting was an examination of the operation of import and export controls in participating countries. Certain types of restriction were declared contrary to Article 11 of the General Agreement: 1) tying the sale of one item considered essential by some importing country to the purchase of something it would not otherwise purchase from that source; 2) making issuance of an export license dependent upon the exporter's getting an import permit from some other country (possibly a third country) for a product such a country would not otherwise purchase; 3) using the export-licensing procedure to enforce a minimum export price — with the object of keeping the prices of raw materials, for example, lower in the producing than in the importing country; 4) using the export-licensing procedure to withhold raw materials altogether from the competitors of a country's own export industries.

On March 31, 1950, the United States gave notice that it would not carry out with respect to the American zone of Germany the provisions of the Copenhagen agreement on radio wave lengths signed, under ITU auspices, by all the countries of Europe. On that date new frequency assignments were made for German and official United States radio outlets, duplicating wave lengths assigned to other nations. The new wave lengths became effective on March 15. The United States was not a signatory to the Copenhagen plan and had frequently stated objections to the assignments made under it. The Director of Public Affairs in the Office of the High Commissioner for Germany (Nicholson), in explaining the United States decision, pointed out that the Copenhagen assignments "made no adequate provision for the continuation of the broadcasting services now being rendered and considered an absolute necessity in the United States zone of Germany and the American sector of Berlin." In order to prevent interference in the broadcasting areas of nations previously assigned the wave lengths subject to duplication, the United States would expedite the construction of directional antennae. In place of the sixteen frequencies previously in use in the United States zone, thirty frequencies were to be utilized after March 15, some of comparatively low power. The frequencies previously assigned were alleged by the United States to be off the normal range of bands used in receivers in Germany.