granted under the Charter should be extended to countries which do not join the International Trade Organization and which, therefore, do not accept the obligations of Article 24. SECTION I, CREATION OF A PROVISIONAL AGENCY PENDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE ORGANIZATION Certain of the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, for example, those incorporating Article 34 of the Charter (Emergency Action on Imports of Particular Products) and Article 35 of the Charter (Nullification or Impairment), will require for their successful operation the existence of an international body. It is proposed, therefore, that the members of the Preparatory Committee, which make effective the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, should create a provisional international agency for this purpose. This provisional agency would go out of existence upon the establishment of the International Trade Organization. SECTION J. RELATION OF THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE TO THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE ORGANIZATION AFTER ITS ESTABLISHMENT Interim Tariff Committee 1. The Charter as now formulated provides in Article 67 that the countries which make effective the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade shall constitute the original members of the Interim Tariff Committee to be set up within the International Trade Organization after the International Conference on Trade and Employment has met and the Organization has been established. 2. The Interim Tariff Committee will have the function of determining whether (with respect to any negotiations subsequent to those culminating in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) any member of the Organization has failed to live up to its obligation regarding tariff negotiations and, under paragraph (3) of Article 24 of the Charter, of authorizing complaining members to withhold tariff benefits from offending members. The following points should be noted with regard to this function: (a) A member of the Organization may be admitted to membership in the Committee when the member has completed tariff negotiations "comparable in scope or effect” to the negotiations already completed by the original members of the Committee. Thus, what is achieved by way of tariff action in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade will become the standard to which members of the Organization will be expected to conform in order to obtain membership of the Interim Tariff Committee. In applying this standard the Committee should have regard to the provisions of the Charter as a whole. (b) Since it is agreed that the original members of the Interim Tarifi Committee will have taken adequate steps toward fulfillment of the tariff obligations of the Charter in respect of negotiations among themselves (see Article III of the draft General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), the Committee may not authorize one original member of the Committee to withhold tariff concessions from another original member of the Committee. This would be without prejudice, of course, to any decisions reached, under the auspices of the Organization, regarding a second series of tariff negotiations among the members of the Committee. (c) Members of the Interim Tariff Committee must, in negotiations with members of the Organization which are not members of the Committee, be prepared to consider concessions on products of interest to the latter which were not dealt with in the original negotiations. Refusal to negotiate on such products might warrant a legitimate complaint. Accordingly the Committee could in such cases authorize a member of the Organization, which is not a member of the Committee, to withhold tariff benefits from a member of the Committee. However, the extent to which a member of the Organization, which is not a member of the Committee, might withhold tariff benefits from a member of the Committee would be limited only to tariff concessions which the former had already made pursuant to Article 24 and general tariff penalties could not be applied. 2 It should be noted that the Organization, as distinct from the Committee, could authorize an original member of the Committee to withhold benefits from another original member of the Committee under certain other provisions of the Charter, (d) The authority of the Committee would in all cases be limited to grant: ing permission to a member of the Organization to withhold tariff benefits from another member. In no event could the Committee compel a member to withhold benefits. Procedure for Broadening Membership in the Interim Tariff Committee through Additional Tariff Negotiations 1. Procedures must be developed for assuring, by negotiation, action for the reduction of tariffs and the elimination of preferences by members of the Organization, which are not parties to the General' Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and hence would not be original members of the Interim Tariff Committee. The following alternative procedures are suggested for consideration: (a) The original members of the Interim Tariff Committee would negotiate separate bilateral agreements with members of the Organization, which are not members of the Committee, and the latter would negotiate such agreements between themselves. The Committee would judge as to when a particular country had completed enough such agreements to entitle it to membership in the Committee. (0) A member of the Organization, which is not an original member of the Committee, might offer to negotiate with the Committee a multilateral schedule of concessions similar in scope and legal application to the schedules appended to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade concluded among the original members of the Interim Tariff Committee and the original members of the Committee would agree to amend the multilateral schedules appended to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the extent necessary to assure appropriate concessions on products of which the country, not a member of the Committee, was a principal supplier. 2. Whatever procedure is adopted, due weight should be given in the negotiating process to concessions already made as a result of prior negotiations. SECTION K. TENTATIVE AND PARTIAL DRAFT OUTLINE OF GENERAL *AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE The governments in respect of which this Agreement is signed : Having been named by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations to prepare, for the consideration of the International Conference on Trade and Employment, a Charter for an International Trade Organization of the United Nations; Having, as the Preparatory Committee for the Conference, recommended to the Conference the provisions of such a Charter, the text of which is set forth in the Report of the Preparatory Committee; and Being desirous of furthering the objectives of the Conference by providing an example of concrete achievement capable of generalization to all countries on equitable terms; Have, through their respective Plenipotentiaries, agreed as follows: Article I 1. During the life of the Agreement each signatory government shall make effective in respect of each other signatory government the provisions described below of the Charter for an International Trade Organization of the United Nations recommended in the report of the Preparatory Committee. [There would follow a list of the articles to be included in the Agreement.) 2. Functions entrusted to the proposed International Trade Organization under any of the provisions of the Charter incorporated in this Agreement by virtue of paragraph 1 of this Article shall, pending the establishment of the Organization, be carried out by a provisional international agency consisting of delegates appointed by the signatory governments. Article II With regard to Articles 24, 32 and 33 of the Charter, which relate to negotiations for 1. The reduction of tariffs and the elimination of tariff preferences, and 2. Parallel action by state-trading enterprises, the signatory governments declare that they have, by virtue of Article III of this Agreement, taken this step towards fulfilment of the obligations of these Articles Article III Each signatory government shall accord to the commerce of the customs ter- Article IV Article V (This Article would reproduce the provisions of Article 38 of the Charter re- Article VI (This article would permit revision of the Agreement, by agreement among Article VII (This Article would provide for the entry into force of this Agreement, its There would be a number of purely technical and of purely legal provisions.) EXHIBIT IV-D OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES. DELEGATION TO THE FIRST MEETING OF THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE IN- INDEX Page Page 885 XI. Work of the Committees-Continued 886 B. Committee II: General Commercial 886 894 886 1. General Most Favored - Nation 887 895 887 2. General Commercial Provisions 887 (Except Most-Favored-Nation Treatment and General Excep- 889 895 889 3. Reduction of Tariffs and Eliming- 889 895 890 4. Quantitative Restrictions and Ex- 891 896 891 (i) General Elimination of Quan- 891 896 (ii) Restrictions to Safeguard the 891 Balance of Payments.. 896 891 (iii) Administration of Quantita- 891 897 (iv) Exchange Control... 897 891 898 6. State Trading- 898 7. Emergency Provisions Consulta- 892 tion-Nullification and Impair- ment.. 898 INDEX-Continued XI. Work of the Committees-Continued Page E. Committee V: Administration and Or- ganization.. 906 1. Membership and Functions... 906 2. The Conference.. 906 3. Voting and Executive Board Mem- bership.. 907 900 907 900 907 6. The Secretariat. 903 901 908 F. Joint Committee of Committees I and 901 II: Industrial Development...- 909 1. Recognition of the Importance of 903 909 2. Positive Aids to Economic Develop- 903 909 904 3. Protective Measures to Assist De- velopment... 910 904 911 905 XII. Entertainment and Official Functions. 912 912 912 I. BACKGROUND Shortly thereafter, the United States Government issued invitations to the On March 5, 1946, the Economic and Social Council passed a resolution under At the same time, the Council suggested to the Preparatory Committee that "(a) International agreement relating to the achievement and main- "(b) International agreement relating to regulations, restrictions and "(c) International agreement relating to restrictive business practices, "(d) International agreement relating to intergovernmental commodity "(e) Establishment of an international trade organization, as a specialized The Council also requested the Preparatory Committee to take into account the special conditions which prevail in countries whose manufacturing industry is still in its initial stages of development, and the questions that arise in connection with commodities which are subject to special problems of adjustment in international markets. The U. S. S. R., which was a member of the Council, voted in favor of this resolution. In preparation for the first session of the Preparatory Committee, which was scheduled by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to be held in London beginning on October 15, 1946, the various agencies within the United States Government interested in this field collaborated in the preparation of a Suggested Charter for an International Trade Organization, based upon the Proposals. This Suggested Charter was made public in September 1946, after months of intensive preparation. (More discussion of the background of the Conference is contained in Section 14 on pages 55 to 62.) II. AGENDA Other than formal matters, such as election of officers, adoption of rules of procedure, etc., the agenda of the first session of the Preparatory Committee was based upon the resolution of the Economic and Social Council quoted above (page 2). However, in setting up the working committees, the Preparatory Committee made the following changes : Topic (a), which was assigned to Committee I, was changed to read "International agreement relating to the achievement and maintenance of high and steadily rising levels of effective demand, employment and economic activity"; A new topic, which was assigned to a Joint Committee of Committees I and II, was inserted as follows: "International agreement relating to industrial development”; Topic (e) was amended to read "Establishment of an international trade organization as a specialized agency of the United Nations having appropriate responsibilities in the above field" ; Topic (b) was assigned to Committee II; Topic (e), as amended, was assigned to Committee V. The agenda for the session, in its original form as submitted by the Secretariat, is contained in Appendix A, attached hereto. The last few items on this document were left for the second session of the Preparatory Committee scheduled to meet in Geneva on April 8, 1947. III. PARTICIPATION Delegations representing seventeen of the eighteen governments, mentioned in Section I were present when the Conference convened on October 15, 1946. A joint delegation represented the Governments of Belgium and Luxembourg. Also present at the Conference were representatives of certain of the specialized agencies of the United Nations. These included the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Labor Organization, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Monetary Fund. Nongovernmental organizations included the International Chamber of Commerce, International Cooperative Alliance, World Federation of Trade Unions, and the American Federation of Labor. The following members of the United Nations sent observers to the Conference: Colombia, Denmark, Poland, Peru and Mexico. IV. UNITED STATES DELEGATION President Truman designated Mr. Clair Wilcox, Director of the Office of International Trade Policy, Department of State, as chairman of the United States Delegation, and Mr. Harry C. Hawkins, Counselor for Economic Affairs, American Embassy, London, England, as vice-chairman. The delegates to the Conference were: Lynn R. Edminster, Vice Chairman, United States Tariff Commission; John W. Gunter, U. S. Treasury Representative, American Embassy, London, England; John H. G. Pierson, Consultant on Employment Policy, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor; Robert Schwenger, Special Assistant |