ABSTRACT
Estimating the future development of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) regime is necessarily guesswork. To be sure, the outcome of the Uruguay Round will be a test case for the prospects of the regime. In all likelihood, the verdict on the Uruguay Round will resemble the one passed on the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 in the United States, which, although it actually strengthened the instruments of the protectionists, was sold politically as a liberalizing piece of legislation, as things might have been worse. The GATT regime will have bought time for restructuring. The Uruguay Round clearly shows that the negotiation business continues to function, thereby bearing witness to the survivability of the GATT regime under conditions of an eroded leadership role on the part of the United States. A more plausible scenario might be one of regime change under post-hegemonic conditions.
