KSLU Solved Question Papers
International Trade Economics
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10
2022 Apr Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 International Trade Economics 2022 Apr Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2022 Apr examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2022 Apr examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Explain the role of GATT in establishing W.T.O.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: GATT's origin as a provisional agreement after the Havana Charter failed; the five ways GATT prepared the ground for the WTO (the body of rules, the habit of negotiating in rounds, the institutional experience, dispute settlement practice, and the Uruguay Round itself); the weaknesses of GATT that the WTO was built to cure; the legal link between them (Articles II:4 and XVI:1 of the Marrakesh Agreement, Brazil: Desiccated Coconut); a table; a conclusion.
GATT's origin
At the end of the Second World War, the planned International Trade Organization (ITO) was to complete the Bretton Woods system. Its Havana Charter was adopted on 24 March 1948 but never came into force, because the United States did not ratify it. Meanwhile, its commercial policy chapter had been taken out and signed at Geneva on 30 October 1947. This was the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It applied from 1 January 1948 under a Protocol of Provisional Application. That provisional agreement governed world trade for forty-seven years and became the foundation on which the WTO was built.
How GATT prepared the ground for the WTO
1. It created the body of rules. The core principles of the WTO all come from GATT 1947. They are most favoured nation treatment (Article I), bound tariffs (Article II) and national treatment (Article III). The ban on quantitative restrictions (Article XI) and the general and security exceptions (Articles XX and XXI) come from it too. The WTO took over the whole text as GATT 1994, with interpretative understandings.
2. It made negotiation a habit. Through eight rounds, GATT showed that trade barriers could be reduced step by step by reciprocal bargaining. The Kennedy Round (1964 to 1967) added an Anti-Dumping Code. The Tokyo Round (1973 to 1979) added codes on subsidies, technical barriers, customs valuation and import licensing. These codes became the models for the WTO agreements of 1994.
3. It built an institution without being one. GATT had no legal personality, but over time it developed a Council, committees, a Secretariat in Geneva and a Director-General. This working machinery was carried over into the WTO.
4. It developed dispute settlement. Under Articles XXII and XXIII, GATT panels decided many disputes and built up a body of reasoning, for example on national treatment and Article XX. The WTO's Dispute Settlement Understanding codified and strengthened this practice.
5. It launched the Uruguay Round. The Uruguay Round was itself a GATT round, launched at Punta del Este on 20 September 1986. Its negotiations produced the Marrakesh Agreement, signed on 15 April 1994, which created the WTO from 1 January 1995. So the WTO was born out of GATT's own negotiating process.
The weaknesses that the WTO cured
GATT's achievements came with defects, and the WTO was designed to remove them.
- Provisional status. GATT was applied provisionally, and its parties were "contracting parties", not members. The WTO is a permanent organisation with legal personality.
- Grandfather clause. Under the Protocol, existing laws inconsistent with Part II could continue. The WTO requires every member to bring its laws into line (Marrakesh Agreement, Article XVI:4).
- GATT a la carte. The Tokyo Round codes bound only those who signed them. The WTO adopted the single undertaking: all multilateral agreements bind all members.
- Narrow scope. GATT covered goods only, and agriculture and textiles largely escaped its rules. The WTO added services (GATS), intellectual property (TRIPS), agriculture and textiles.
- Weak disputes. Under GATT a losing party could block a panel report. Under the WTO, reports are adopted unless all members agree not to (reverse consensus).
The legal link between GATT and the WTO
Institutional succession. Under Article XVI:1 of the Marrakesh Agreement, the WTO is guided by the decisions, procedures and customary practices of the GATT contracting parties. GATT's experience therefore continues to inform the WTO.
Textual distinctness. Under Article II:4, GATT 1994 is legally distinct from GATT 1947.
Brazil: Desiccated Coconut (WT/DS22/AB/R, adopted 20 March 1997). Brazil's countervailing duty on Philippine coconut rested on an investigation begun before the WTO Agreement took effect. The Appellate Body held that the new Agreement on Subsidies did not apply to it. The WTO agreements are a new legal package, even though they grew out of GATT.
Summary table
| Point | GATT 1947 | WTO |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Provisional agreement | Permanent organisation |
| Parties | Contracting parties | Members |
| Scope | Goods | Goods, services, intellectual property |
| Codes | Optional | Single undertaking |
| Disputes | Report could be blocked | Reverse consensus |
Conclusion. GATT laid the foundation of the WTO. It supplied the core rules, the method of negotiating in rounds, a working institution and a dispute settlement practice. Its last round created the WTO. At the same time, GATT's weaknesses explain the WTO's design: permanence, the single undertaking, wider scope and binding dispute settlement. The WTO is thus both GATT's successor under Article XVI:1 and a legally new system under Article II:4.
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