The "Trade Policy Review Mechanism" passed within the framework of the Uruguay Round is intended to increase the transparency of national trade policies and to improve adherence to the rules of GATT. The following article offers a first evaluation of the new instrument.

The final package of the seventh round of multilateral GATT negotiations has been ready for initialling since April 11, 1979. What has been achieved in these negotiations, commonly known as the Tokyo Round, and what has been left undone?

In the fifties and sixties GATT was a motive power for worldwide trade liberalization which caused exports and imports to increase constantly at a higher rate than the production of goods. If this positive trend is to last, the course must be laid now for progressive removal of the trade barriers.