Creating the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade:
What the Founders Intended, What They Got, and What It Means Today
Thursday, November 29, 2007, 9:00–11:00 a.m.
Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
International trade scholars Douglas Irwin of Dartmouth College and Petros Mavroidis of Columbia University Law School have just completed a study of the motivations and goals that underpinned the creation of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) at the end of World War II. Given the dire straits of the world trading system today—with the Doha Round of multilateral negotiations near collapse—it is particularly timely to analyze in some detail the aspirations of the fathers of GATT in attempting to establish a postwar system that would lead to peace and prosperity. In this seminar, Irwin and Mavroidis will describe their findings. Three international trade experts will discuss the original goals for GATT, how the system has changed in the ensuing decades, and the implications for the twenty-first century multilateral trading system.
8:45 a.m.
Registration
9:00
Presenters:
Douglas Irwin, Dartmouth College
Petros Mavroidis, Columbia University Law School
Discussants:
John Jackson, Georgetown University Law Center
Gary Horlick, WilmerHale
Brink Lindsey, Cato Institute
Moderator:
Claude Barfield, AEI
