The GATT's Starting Point : Tariff Levels circa 1947

Bown, Chad P. ; Irwin, Douglas A.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: TARIFFS;    EQUIPMENT;    CHECKS;    ACCOUNTING;    TARIFF RATES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7649
RP-ID  :  WPS7649

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

How high were import tariffs when GATTparticipants began negotiations to reduce them in 1947?Establishing this starting point is key to determining howsuccessful the GATT has been in bringing down tradebarriers. If the average tariff level was about 40 percent,as commonly reported, the implied early tariff reductionswere substantial, but this number has never been verified.This paper examines the evidence on tariff levels in thelate 1940s and early 1950s and finds that the average tarifflevel going into the first Geneva Round of 1947 was about 22percent. It also find that tariffs fell by relatively morein the late 1940s and early 1950s for a core group of GATTparticipants (the United States, United Kingdom, Canada andAustralia) than they did for many other important countries,including the set of other (non-core) GATT participants.