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it might encourage the Soviet Union, as the only major
economic power left outside the GATT, also to apply for
accession. Soviet accession would change the whole
nature of the GATT.
There would be no logical reason
to exclude any other state trader which wished to
accede, and the Soviet Union could be expected to work
within the GATT to ensure that it became a universal
rather than a free-market body, and to promote its
politicisation, with all the familiar dangers of
"UNCTADisation"; it would risk becoming a forum for
East-West and North-South disputes at the expense of
its original functions. The GATT would probably be
increasingly abandoned by the developed countries as a
forum for discussing trade policy in favour of more
restricted fora (to which the US have in any case shown
signs of being attracted). We should certainly
continue to resist Soviet accession, and argue -
especially if they "resumed" their seat that Chinese
accession did not constitute a precedent.
In the
immediate future, it is unlikely that a Soviet
application would succeed. But we could expect
pressure from the Soviet Union to be admitted to the
GATT to increase. And given the wider political
implications of isolating the Russians in this way,
might in the long term be difficult to sustain the
it
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