The Uruguay Round Agreement: Implications for Pakistan’s Textiles and Clothing Sector

The Uruguay Round (UR), which marked the conclusion of protracted multilateral trade negotiations, resulted in comprehensive agreements on multilateral trade in goods and services within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The newly created World Trade Organisation (WTO) provides an institutional framework that encompasses all the agreements and legal instruments negotiated in the UR as well as the dispute settlement procedures and provisions for the regular monitoring of policies of the member countries. The UR agreement has been widely perceived as constituting a major advance in the process of multilateral liberalisation of trade in goods and services and, when fully implemented, is expected to improve economic efficiency and welfare from the global, national and sectoral standpoints. An important feature of the UR agreement is the incorporation of new sectors like textiles and clothing within the ambit of the GATT/WTO framework. In view of the fact that the textiles and clothing industry is one of the few sectors in which developing countries enjoy a distinct comparative advantage over industrial countries, the UR agreement holds considerable significance for developing economies like Pakistan.