General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Extract

The sixteenth session of the contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held in Geneva from May 16 to June 4, 1960, under the chairmanship of Mr. Edmundo Barbosa de Silva (Brazil). One of the major decisions taken at the session was the creation of a council to expedite business between regular meetings. Membership in the council was to be open to all the countries adhering to the trade pact that were ready “to accept the responsibilities” of such participation. The council was to deal with urgent matters arising between GATT's semi-annual plenary sessions and to take over the work of the permanent committee dealing with import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons, as well as supervise the work of various other subsidiary units. The terms of reference of the council were said to contain an escape clause to allow a dissenting country not to be bound by decisions taken, in that members might appeal rulings, which would then be suspended and acted upon at a subsequent plenary session.