Trade Issues

17. World trade developed rapidly last year. Yet protectionism remains a real threat. We strongly reaffirm our determination to fight it in all its forms. We shall fulfill the Punta del Este standstill and rollback commitments which, inter alia, require the avoidance of any trade restrictive or distorting measure inconsistent with the provisions of the General Agreement and its instruments. We agree to make effective use of the improved GATT dispute settlement mechanism and to make progress in negotiations for further improvements. We will avoid any discriminatory or autonomous actions, which undermine the principles of the GATT and the integrity of the multilateral trading system. We also are pledged to oppose the tendency towards unilateralism, bilateralism, sectoralism and managed trade which threatens to undermine the multilateral system and the Uruguay Round negotiations.

18. The successful negotiation of the Trade Negotiations Committee of the Uruguay Round in Geneva last April, thereby completing the mid-term review, is a very important achievement. It gives a clear framework for future work in all sectors including the pursuit of agricultural reform in the short term as well as in the long term. It also gives the necessary framework for substantive negotiations in important sectors not yet fully included in GATT disciplines, such as services, trade-related investment measures and intellectual property.

Developing countries participated actively in these negotiations and contributed to this success. All countries should made their most constructive contribution possible.

We express our full commitment to making further substantive progress in the Uruguay Round in order to complete it by the end of 1990.

19. We note with satisfaction the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the US, as well as more recent initiatives to intensify the close economic relations between the European Community and EFTA [European Free Trade Association] countries. It remains our policy that these and other developments in regional cooperation, should be trade-creating and complementary to the multilateral liberalization process.

20. It is the firm intention of the European Community that the trade aspects of the single market program should also be trade-creating and complementary to the multilateral liberalization process.

21. We note with satisfaction the progress that has been made in strengthening the multilateral disciplines on trade and aid distorting export credit subsidies. This effort must be pursued actively and completed in the competent bodies of the OECD with a view to improving present guidelines at the earliest possible date.

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