in an effort to promote free trade. However, because of confusion about the implications of free trade, the ITO never came to be. Most notably, the United States and Europe (mainly Britain) clashed in their concepts of free trade. The United States saw free trade as a great means of helping world prosperity and encouraging peace. Europe was however skeptical of this structural change while power was so unevenly shifted in favor of the United States. With the threat of the US slipping into another depression, which would also hurt Europe’s economy, and presence of the Soviet Union’s ideals lurking in the background, a determination on trade became essential. Finally, the GATT was established with the sole concern of reducing trade barriers. After several years of operation, the first of the South’s voice would be heard as they began to complain of unfair tariffs that industrialized countries still had in place that were detrimental to the developing counties. It was reported by an investigative committee that, “barriers of all kinds in developed counties contributed significantly to the trade problems of developing countries.” A major subject of the 1961 United Nations General Assembly was the large trade gap between developed and undeveloped worlds. The Group of 77 (G-77), made up of developing countries, pointed out the shortcomings of GATT and helped form the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as a response. This new organization improved exposure to the “special and differential” needs of the South and supported the push for greater liberalization of the North’s markets and tariff reductions. This brings the history to the opening of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiation in 1986. This round was one in a series under the GATT’s umbrella. The negotiations took place over eight years and involved 125 countries. Unfortunately, developing coun...
