republics. As a result of these agreements, substantial tariff
reductions were made by foreign countries on a number of
products exported by the United States, including tobacco,
wheat, canned and dried fruit, pork, and dairy products in return
for tariff concessions on our part.
General agreement on tariffs and trade. The bilateral
trade agreements program proved to be an effective means of
reducing barriers with individual countries, but the process
was slow. Since the end of World War II, the United States
has joined with other nations in an attempt to speed up the
mechanism for reducing trade barriers by making multilateral
trade agreements. Under a multilateral agreement, tariff con-
cessions granted by one country to a second country are ex-
tended automatically to all other countries who sign the agree-
ment. This amounts to making bilateral agreements on a
wholesale basis. Three international trade agreement confer-
ences have been held since 1947. The United States has
participated in all these conferences. At the Geneva conference,
a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (commonly known
as GATT) was prepared after months of negotiations. This
agreement reduced tariffs and import restrictions on a wide
range of products. It was signed by over twenty nations in-
cluding the United States. Nine additional countries joined
the original signatories of the General Agreement to exchange
tariff concessions at Annecy, France, in 1949. The following
year, seven more countries participated in a trade conference
held at Torquay, England. At the present time, thirty-eight
countries which import more than 80 percent of the total value
of all goods traded internationally have signed the agreement.
In return for concessions granted by other nations, this country
has reduced tariffs on many agricultural as well as industrial
products. But despite these agreements, the total volume of
United States trade has not expanded as much as some coun-
tries had hoped. This has been due partly to the fact that we
have maintained quantitative restrictions on imports of certain
agricultural products. Our failure to streamline customs pro-
cedures also has limited the effectiveness of the tariff reduction
program. But perhaps the greatest barrier has been the ever-
present threat that if other countries did succeed in expanding
exports to this country, we would impose new import restric-
tions.
44