ABSTRACT
THE EARLY YEARS, 1947-60 Despite the diversity of interests among the contracting parties to GATT and the variety of commercial policies they pursued, GATT achieved considerable success in a number of areas during the 1950s. While the early success recorded in the 1947 tariff-reducing negotiations was not again repeated in the subsequent meetings at Annecy (1949), Torquay (1950-1), and Geneva (1955-6), some progress continued to be made and, by the mid1950s, a net reduction in U.S. duties of 50 per cent had been achieved since 1934 by tariff concessions alone, the greater part of which had occurred after 1945. Even more striking, GATT membership grew from 23 signatories in 1947 to over 70 in 1960, covering over 80 per cent of total world trade. In addition, by providing a forum for conciliation and discussion, GATT resolved, often through arbitration or adjudication, commercial disputes which might otherwise have caused continuing bad feeling, reprisals, and even diplomatic breakdown.
