TRADE-U.S.: GATT approval looks certain

• by IPS Correspondents (washington)
• Thursday, December 01, 1994
• Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dic 01 (IPS) - With just a few hours left in a two-day debate, the U.S. Senate was poised here Thursday to approve the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) accord and guarantee U.S. ratification.

"I feel victory in the air," exulted Commerce Secretary Ron Brown at special lunch for the lobbyists of major U.S. multinational corporations which have long been the biggest cheerleaders for the global trade accord.

Administration officials said they expect a two-thirds majority in the Senate to approve the accord, the product of seven years of negotiations involving 124 different countries.

Such a margin would equal the bigger-than-expected vote in the House of Representatives Tuesday for the accord, which is supposed to reduce average global tariffs.

It would also boost President Bill Clinton who has made GATT's approval his top priority since the Democratic Party was routed at the polls in mid-term elections Nov. 8. The Senate majority in favour of the GATT is expected to be bipartisan.

Clinton is expected to sign the implementing legislation almost immediately after the Senate approves the measure.

Dozens of countries which signed the GATT in Marrakesh, Morocco earlier this year are then expected to ratify it so that both the accord and the new World Trade Organisation (WTO) which it establishes can be launched on schedule Jan. 1.

The Clinton administration and GATT backers have been relentless in arguing that, as the world's largest economy and trading nation, the United States has as much or more to gain from a GATT accord than any other country.

U.S. economic output could be boosted by as much as 65 billion dollars a year within 10 years as a result of the accord, according to a widely-quoted study by the pro-GATT Institute for International Economics here.

The multi-billion-dollar-a-year software and pharmaceutical industries in the United States stand to gain a lot from the pact as a result of tougher anti-piracy provisions and protection for intellectual property rights.

Another big winner will be U.S. wheat and other food exporters. Reductions in export subsidies required under the new accord will mean a leg up for U.S. agribusiness against its European competition.

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