ABSTRACT
In 1947 the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established, as a forerunner of the International Trade Organization (ITO), to provide a set of rules directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade and to the elimination of discriminatory treatments. The General Agreement was grounded on the most-favored-nation (MFN) rule, which provided the foundation for the multilateral trading system. To understand the reasons behind the launching of the Kennedy Round, it is necessary to briefly describe GATT activities in the 1950's and the Dillon Round. The Trade expansion Act (TEA) was a way to mutually sustain European Economic Community (EEC) regionalism and GATT multilateralism and to ensure that the development of regionalism in Europe would be conciliated with US support for an open and nondiscriminatory economic system. The liberalization of Western European trade started on a regional basis and through regional institutions, bypassing Bretton Woods's multilateralism.
