After World War II, the international trade rules with gatt/wto as the core have increasingly influenced the formulation of trade policies of various countries. It can be said that this multilateral trade policy framework was initiated by the United States.

Does American foreign trade policy conform to wto rules?

No matter in the process of the establishment of GATT, in the first eight rounds of multilateral trade negotiations of GATT, or even in the unsuccessful "Millennium Round", the influence and promotion of the United States have played a huge role. ?

The establishment of GATT

The early foreign trade policy of the United States was to protect domestic industries, so it was characterized by protectionism. 1934 is a crucial year for the change of American foreign trade policy. This year, the US Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act was established, which marked the dominant position of liberalism in American politics and the starting point for the United States to move towards a multilateral trading system. The bill announced the reduction of tariffs through reciprocal trade agreements, and put forward the clause of "unconditional most-favored-nation treatment", stipulating that the tariff reduction agreements signed by the US government with any country will automatically apply to other countries that have concluded reciprocal trade agreements with the United States. Reducing tariff barriers and unconditional MFN treatment will become the cornerstone of GATT in the future. In the early postwar period, in order to dominate the world, the United States actively planned to establish a hegemonic position in the world economy and politics, and expanded from international finance, investment and trade. To this end, the United States put forward the slogan of "trade liberalization" and for the first time proposed the establishment of the International Trade Organization (ito) as an international organization that pays equal attention to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and specializes in coordinating foreign trade policies and international economic and trade relations. 1946 In February, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which was proposed by the United States, began preparations for the organization. 1947 The draft charter of the International Trade Organization was adopted at the second preparatory meeting held in Geneva in April. At the same time that the Charter of the World Trade Organization was drafted, it was also proposed by the United States. From April 1947 to April 10/0, negotiations on tariff concessions involving 23 countries were held, and tariff concessions agreements and schedules were reached, involving 45,000 commodities. In order to get the benefits of tariff concessions as soon as possible, the participating countries merged these agreements with the trade policy part of the draft international trade charter, forming the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (gatt). From the establishment of GATT, it is not difficult to see the decisive role played by the United States.

Eight rounds of multilateral trade negotiations in GATT Since the establishment of GATT, there have been seven rounds of multilateral trade negotiations from 1947 to 1979, which has promoted the continuous decline of the import tax rate of contracting parties and also reflected the policy thinking of the United States to actively promote world trade liberalization at that time.