International Trade Organization

Forty-four nations were represented at the fifth session on tariff negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade at Torquay, England which convened on September 28, 1950. Of the nations which took part in negotiations, 32 were contracting parties to GATT and seven (Austria, Korea, Peru, the Republic of the Philippines, Turkey, Uruguay and the Federal Republic of Germany) attended the conference with the hope of becoming signatories upon the completion of negotiations. There were five countries (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela and Switzerland) which sent observers. L. Dana Wilgress of Canada was the chairman of the meeting. The United States withdrew its request to have Japan restored to full trading equality at the conference because of the indications that other nations were not yet willing to grant most-favored-nation treatment to Japan. The contracting parties negotiated among themselves for newer and broader tariff concessions than those obtained at Geneva in 1947. At the conclusion of the country-with-country bargaining, the results wtere examined by all the participating countries and upon their approval were integrated into the agreement. Other items of importance to international trade discussed were 1) the discrimination against dollar goods as practiced by some countries and 2) the relation of the Schuman Plan to the most-favored-nation clauses in existing agreements. The conference established a tariff negotiations working party of eleven to act as expeditor and policeman if the delegations were slow in initiating negotiations or dragged them on too long.