§ Mr. Binnsasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the outcome of recent negotiations in Geneva on the text of a new chapter on trade and development, to be included in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
§ Mr. JayOn 26th November, the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade at their second Special Session approved for submission to Governments the text of a new Part IV of the General Agreement, consisting of three new Articles containing special provisions to help the trade and development of the less developed countries.
The first of the new Articles sets out the principles and objectives which should govern international trade policies in relation to less developed countries. The second contains undertakings by developed and less developed contracting parties in furtherance of these objectives. They include undertakings by developed contracting parties to refrain from increasing barriers to imports of products of particular export interest to the less developed, and to give high priority to the reduction of existing barriers. The governments concerned will not be bound to implement these provisions in cases in which they find that there are compelling reasons against doing so. Less developed contracting parties undertake to implement the provisions of the new Articles to the extent consistent with their own needs. The third Article provides for various forms of joint action to promote the trade and development of the less developed contracting parties.
The new Part IV will accordingly give a new legal basis to the considerable amount of work already being done in the G.A.T.T. on the problems of the less developed countries and on the reduction of barriers to their trade. The agreement reached on the text is a substantial achievement and an important milestone in the progress of the work undertaken in this field, which in recent years has become an increasingly important part of 160W activities in the G.A.T.T. I hope that the new Part IV will soon be incorporated in the General Agreement and will give a further impetus to work on behalf of the less developed countries.
A meeting will be held on a date to be fixed in January at which contracting parties will sign the Final Act authenticating the texts of the new Part IV and related documents, as finally agreed by governments. It is proposed that at this meeting a Declaration should be made on behalf of countries taking part in the Session, by which they will declare their intention to apply Part IV de facto, so far as they are legally able to do so, pending the coming into force of the Protocol of Amendment to the General Agreement on its acceptance by two thirds of the contracting parties. It is also intended to set up a new Committee on Trade and Development, to be responsible for all work in the G.A.T.T. on the problems of the less developed countries and to keep under review the application of the new Part IV of the Agreement.
I have placed in the Library of the House, for the convenience of hon. Members, ten copies of the text of Part IV. When this text and the texts of related documents have been authenticated, they will be set forth in a White Paper to be presented to the House.