Editorial Note
Meeting concurrently in Habana February 28–March 24, 1948, was the First Session of the Contracting Parties (CP’s) to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The Session was convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in accordance with Article XXV of the General Agreement which provided that “Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of this Agreement which involve joint action and, generally, with a view to facilitating the operation and furthering the objectives of this Agreement.” The following Contracting Parties participated in the First Session: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition 14 countries attended as Participating Observers, having signed the Geneva Final Act but not yet put the Agreement into effect under the Protocol of Provisional Application (Brazil, Burma, Ceylon, Chile, China, Czechoslovakia, India, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Southern Rhodesia, Syria, and the Union of South Africa).
The United States sent a delegation of five “representatives” to the First Session of the Contracting Parties, headed by John W. Evans of the Department of Commerce. The other four, functioning in an advisory capacity were: Honoré M. Catudal, John M. Leddy and Vernon L. Phelps of the Department of State, and Edgar B. Brossard of the United States Tariff Commission. Both Leddy and Phelps functioned on occasion as acting head of the Delegation.
Mr. Eric Wyndham White (a British national), Executive Secretary of the Habana Conference, opened the first meeting on February 28. Mr. L. D. Wilgress of Canada was elected Chairman of the Contracting Parties and Mr. A. B. Speekenbrink of the Netherlands was elected Vice-Chairman. The Contracting Parties met on 13 occasions subsequent to February 28, the final meeting taking place on March 20. All [Page 901] of the meetings were in effect plenary in character. Four protocols and a “Declaration” were signed on March 24 at a joint meeting with the Habana Conference. (The Final Act of the Habana Conference and Related Documents were also signed at this joint meeting.) A summary of the accomplishments of this First Session of the Contracting Parties as based on a United States Delegation paper, is printed infra. A fuller recital of the protocols of the First Session is printed in Department of State Press Release Number 261 of March 31, 1948. Two “Reports” by the Head of the United States Representatives to the First Session, one official, the other confidential (Lot 57D284, Box 108, neither printed), together constitute a valuable reference file on the work of the First Session of the Contracting Parties. The Official Report provides a good over-view and the Confidential Report has quite detailed information on the organization, procedures and accomplishments of the conference.
One of the basic actions effected by the Contracting Parties at the First Session was the supersession of certain provisions of the GATT by the provisions of the new Habana Charter. In respect of one of two principal supersessions, the replacement of GATT Article XIV of the 1947 Geneva Conference (the Agreement) by the new Article 23 of the Habana Conference (the Charter), the United States was able to give its support although the general policy of the United States regarding supersession was to hold such changes “to a minimum pending expression of opinion by the American public and the Congress on the merits of the ITO Charter, as perfected at Habana” (Official Report, Lot 57D284, Box 108), in a word, to limit supersession to items of an emergency nature.
In this context the United States did not oppose a major effort mounted especially by the United Kingdom and France to re-cast Article XIV of GATT (“Exceptions to the Rule of Non-Discrimination”) along the lines of Article 23 of the Charter which had just been definitively drafted at Habana (in conformance with United States thinking; see documentation pages 802 ff.) The documentation that follows the Summary of the Conference, infra, sets forth the United States position on this question at the First Session of the Contracting Parties and reprints in toto the new Article XIV of GATT, with Annex J appended thereto, in light of the importance of this article and its annex in subsequent GATT history in terms of permitted exceptions to the rule of non-discrimination for balance of payments reasons.
The official files of the United States Representatives at the First Session of the Contracting Parties is in Lot 57D284, Box 108. It is a very slim file, as is also the file of official GATT documentation contained therein. Both files are reflective of the newness and inexperience [Page 902] of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as they assembled and held the brief First Session at Habana.