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The 'Uruguay Round' was a trade negotiation lasting from September 1986 to April 1994 which transformed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the World Trade Organization (WTO). It was launched in Punta del Este in Uruguay (hence the name), followed by negotiations in Montreal, Geneva, Brussels, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo, with the 20 agreements finally being signed in Marrakech - the Marrakesh Agreement.
See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade for previous and subsequent rounds.

Contents

Goals

Criticism

See also

External links

Goals

The main aims of the Uruguay round of negotiations were to reduce agricultural subsidies, put restrictions on foreign investment, and begin the process of opening trade in services like banking and insurance. They also wanted to draft a code to deal with copyright violation and other forms of intellectual property rights.

Criticism

Groups such as Oxfam have criticized the Uruguay Round for paying insufficient attention to the special needs of developing countries. One aspect of this criticism is that figures very close to rich country industries — such as former Cargill executive Dan Amstutz — had a major role in the drafting of Uruguay Round language on agriculture and other matters. As with the WTO in general, NGOs such as Health Gap and Global Trade Watch also criticize what was negotiated in the Round on intellectual property and industrial tariffs as setting up too many constraints on policy-making and human needs.

See also

★ ''Golan v. Gonzalez'', a failed challenge to the copyright restoration provisions of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 1996, the implementation of the Uruguay Round agreements in the United States Code

External links

★ WTO history of the Uruguay Round

★ WTO Final Act of the Uruguay Round