ABSTRACT
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) can be regarded as providing the traffic rules for international trade and prohibiting the use of mutually harmful trade policy instruments. The basic principles underlying GATT rules are simple in essence and correspond to the principles of liberal constitutions. In order to ensure prompt and effective resolution of disputes to the benefit of all contracting parties, negotiations shall aim to improve and strengthen the rules and the procedures of the dispute settlement process, while recognizing the contribution that would be made by more effective and enforceable GATT rules and disciplines. There seems to be general agreement among contracting parties that the GATT dispute settlement system should offer a choice among alternative and complementary techniques of dispute settlement so as to respond adequately to the different nature of disputes and to make the dispute settlement system more flexible.
