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Concluding, the Chairman said he would reflect further on the idea of a separate monitoring machinery and initiate further discussion at the next meeting.
8. Item 2: trade measures taken for balance of payments purposes
The Chairman reported that he had held further discussions with the IMF on practical measures to strengthen co-ordination between the two bodies. Arrangements had already been made for IMF findings to be made available to the GATT Balance of Payments Committee some time before consultations. Generally arrangements were being made for more frequent informal discussions between the two bodies and for a closer sustained dialogue.
9. Most of the discussion concentrated on the procedures for balance of payments consultations within the GATT and stemmed from a Pakistani objection to its recent experience in the Balance of Payments Committee. The developing countries all supported the proposition that the simplified procedure should be adopted for all consultations with developing countries; the developed countries considered that the full procedure should be the norm, except in the case of the least developed countries. The Commission (Loeff) proposed that the GATT should help developing countries to prepare their case in supplement to the IMF work. But they would not regard it as wise to exempt developing countries from the full rules under GATT. The US (W. Kelly) had hoped to defer substantive discussion to the Framework Group. However, they wanted to retain full consultation procedures which had been valuable in the past for providing pressure for the removal of restrictions or justifi- cation of their maintenance.
10. Item 3: the international trading system and the role of GATT
This discussion concentrated on the question of dispute management. Canada, the EEC and Japan all considered that current dispute settlement procedures worked fairly well on a pragmatic basis and that further codification or precision would not improve things. Articles XXII and XXIII gave an adequate basis; it was necessary to improve their operation. The US (7. Kelly) agreed that these two articles formed the foundation but they wanted improvements to be negotiated in the Framework Group. The Chairman agreed that there was probably no need to write new rules but existing operational procedures needed to be improved. He suggested that the GATT Secretariat should look at cases where operation of existing rules had not been fully satisfactory, particularly in relation to notification. They would produce an analysis for the next meeting to consider.
11. Item 4: world trade in agricultural products
Australia (G. Kelly) introduced their paper CG 18/7/17, noting their key area of concern as the overspill of exports from high-cost surplus production. The other exporting countries (US, New Zealand and Argentina) also said that they needed greater predictability of access for their exports. The Commission (Loeff) noted that all participants were committed to progress in this section in the MTN and suggested that the Group await developments there. In conclusion Australia agreed that further discussion should be deferred until the conclusion of the MTN.
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