October 30th marked the 70th birthday of the WTO’s precursor
Back then, America led multilateralism
SUPERLATIVES surrounded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) when it was signed on October 30th 1947. A press release heralded it as “the most far-reaching negotiation[s] ever undertaken in the history of world trade.” The Economist grumbled it was “one of the longest and most complicated public documents ever issued—and one of the hardest to comprehend.” The Daily Express, a British newspaper, growled: “The big bad bargain is sealed.”
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Jolly good”
Finance & economics November 4th 2017
- As the global economy picks up, inflation is oddly quiescent
- Investors call the end of the government-bond bull market (again)
- Increasingly, hunting money-launderers is automated
- Jerome Powell is poised to be named chairman of the Fed
- Asian households binge on debt
- In Japan, the move from cash to plastic goes slowly
- October 30th marked the 70th birthday of the WTO’s precursor
- Catalonia and the perils of fiscal redistribution
From the November 4th 2017 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Finance & economics
China meets its official growth target. Not everyone is convinced
For one thing, 2024 saw the second-weakest rise in nominal GDP since the 1970s
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Are big cities overrated?
New economic research suggests so
Why catastrophe bonds are failing to cover disaster damage
The innovative form of insurance is reaching its limits
“The Traitors”, a reality TV show, offers a useful economics lesson
It is a finite, sequential, incomplete information game
Will Donald Trump unleash Wall Street?
Bankers have plenty of reason to be hopeful