ABSTRACT
The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, launched at Punta del Este, Uruguay, in September 1986, underwent a midterm review in Montreal, Canada, in December 1988. The tough period lies ahead. People who take an interest in these matters are either academic observers or practicing diplomats. Until the early 1980s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was the principal vehicle through which the United States conducted its trade policy. It initiated all the "GATT Rounds," made sure that the European Economic Community gave it, and others, proper compensation for the use of Article XXIV, and generally supported the universal, multilateral philosophy behind the Treaty, which it had largely inspired and brought into being in 1947. The US trade deficit is in good measure to blame for this state of affairs. Most, perhaps all, economists would maintain that trade deficits have much more to do with macroeconomic policies than with trade policies.
