HC Deb 29 January 1951 vol 483 cc81-2W
Mr. Russell

asked the President of the Board of Trade when the text of the resolutions passed by the contracting parties of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade at Torquay will be published.

Mr. H. Wilson

The only resolutions passed by the contracting parties at their recent session at Torquay were:

  1. (a) a resolution (resulting from a United Kingdom proposal) extending until the end of 1951 the period during which countries are entitled under Part II of Article XX of the Agreement to maintain certain measures necessitated by post-war shortages or surplus stocks which would otherwise be inconsistent with the Agreement, and
  2. (b) a resolution fixing the authorised amount of, and the rates of contributions to, the expenses of the Contracting Parties in 1951.

Reports on other matters of importance (not involving formal resolutions) dealt with at the session have been published in the Board of Trade Journal for 23rd December, 1950 (page 1058) and 30th December, 1950 (page 1107). In addition, the contracting parties have provisionally approved the texts of drafts of a Protocol and other formal documents designed to provide the necessary legal structure for implementing the results of the Torquay tariff negotiations; these drafts, however, are subject to such amendments as may prove necessary in the light of the outcome of the negotiations.

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