General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Article XXVIII bis
Tariff Negotiations

1. The contracting parties recognize that customs duties often constitute
serious obstacles to trade; thus negotiations on a reciprocal and
mutually advantageous basis, directed to the substantial reduction of the
general level of tariffs and other charges on imports and exports and in
particular to the reduction of such high tariffs as discourage the
importation even of minimum quantities, and conducted with due regard to
the objectives of this Agreement and the varying needs of individual
contracting parties, are of great importance to the expansion of
international trade. The CONTRACTING PARTES may therefore sponsor such
negotiations from time to time.

2. (a) Negotiations under this Article may be carried out on a selective
product-by-product basis or by the application of such multilateral
procedures as may be accepted by the contracting parties concerned. Such
negotiations may be directed towards the reduction of duties, the binding
of duties at then existing levels or undertakings that individual duties
or the average duties on specified categories of products shall not
exceed specified levels. The binding against increase of low duties or of
duty-free treatment shall, in principle, be recognized as a concession
equivalent in value to the reduction of high duties.

(b) The contracting parties recognize that in general the success of
multilateral negotiations would depend on the participation of all
contracting parties which conduct a substantial proportion of their
external trade with one another.

3. Negotiations shall be conducted on a basis which affords adequate
opportunity to take into account:

(a) the needs of individual contracting parties and individual
industries;

(b) the needs of less-developed countries for a more flexible use of
tariff protection to assist their economic development and the
special needs of these countries to maintain tariffs for revenue
purposes; and

(c) all other relevant circumstances, including the fiscal,
developmental, strategic and other needs of the contracting parties
concerned.

Article XXIX
The Relation of this Agreement to the Havana Charter

1. The contracting parties undertake to observe to the fullest extent of
their executive authority the general principles of Chapters I to VI
inclusive and of Chapter IX of the Havana Charter pending their
acceptance of it in accordance with their constitutional procedures.

2. Part II of this Agreement shall be suspended on the day on which the
Havana Charter enters into force.

3. If by September 30, 1949, the Havana Charter has not entered into
force, the contracting parties shall meet before December 31, 1949, to
agree whether this Agreement shall be amended, supplemented or
maintained.

4. If at any time the Havana Charter should cease to be in force, the
CONTRACTING PARTIES shall meet as soon as practicable thereafter to agree
whether this Agreement shall be supplemented, amended or maintained.
Pending such agreement, Part II of this Agreement shall again enter into
force; Provided that the provisions of Part II other than Article XXIII
shall be replaced, mutatis mutandis, in the form in which they then
appeared in the Havana Charter; and Provided further that no contracting
party shall be bound by any provisions which did not bind it at the time
when the Havana Charter ceased to be in force.

5. If any contracting party has not accepted the Havana Charter by the
date upon which it enters into force, the CONTRACTING PARTIES shall
confer to agree whether, and if so in what way, this Agreement in so far
as it affects relations between such contracting party and other
contracting parties, shall be supplemented or amended. Pending such
agreement the provisions of Part Il of this Agreement shall,
notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Article, continue
to apply as between such contracting party and other contracting parties.

6. Contracting parties which are Members of the International Trade
Organization shall not invoke the provisions of this Agreement so as to
prevent the operation of any provision of the Havana Charter. The
application of the principle underlying this paragraph to any contracting
party which is not a Member of the International Trade Organization shall
be the subject of an agreement pursuant to paragraph 5 of this Article.

Article XXX
Amendments

1. Except where provision for modification is made elsewhere in this
Agreement, amendments to the provisions of Part I of this Agreement or to
the provisions of Article XXIX or of this Article shall become effective
upon acceptance by all the contracting parties, and other amendments to
this Agreement shall become effective, in respect of those contracting
parties which accept them, upon acceptance by two-thirds of the
contracting parties and thereafter for each other contracting party upon
acceptance by it.

2. Any contracting party accepting an amendment to this Agreement shall
deposit an instrument of acceptance with the Secretary-General of the
United Nations within such period as the CONTRACTING PARTIES may specify.
The CONTRACTING PARTIES may decide that any amendment made effective
under this Article is of such a nature that any contracting party which
has not accepted it within a period specified by the CONTRACTING PARTIES
shall be free to withdraw from this Agreement, or to remain a contracting
party with the consent of the CONTRACTING PARTIES.

Author: international

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