ABSTRACT
Most of the industrial countries had begun to limit textile imports and Japan, in acceding to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), had been asked to restrain its exports of several products. Reciprocal reductions of tariffs have been one of the success stories of post-World War II international cooperation. Determining trade restrictions on a reciprocal basis ties together the access a country allows foreign suppliers to its domestic market, and the access the country's exporters will have to foreign markets. The public choice structures of the two were similar, as were the successes of the two systems to generate an open trading system. "Unfair" foreign practices provide the screen behind which a government can enjoy being seduced by special interests and yet pretend to act nobly. The GATT membership, called the GATT "Council" when they meet to conduct GATT affairs, then appoints a "panel" to look into the matter.
