General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Abstract

The fifth annual report prepared by the secretariat of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), International Trade 1956, opened with a survey of developments in the structure and pattern of international trade. During 1956 the value of international trade had risen by II percent from 1955 to more than $90,000 million during the first half of the year and $95,000 million in the second. Because of a slight increase in the general price level the volume of world trade had risen somewhat less, but had exceeded the rate of increase in industrial output. Trade between industrial and non-industrial areas had continued to decline. Due to the greater increase in value of exports of industrial countries than of those of the non-industrial areas, as well as to the greater rise in volume of exports of industrial countries to each other than to non-industrial destinations, the share in world exports of trade among industrial countries had risen to 40.3 percent, while the share of trade between industrial and non-industrial countries fell to 49.2 percent and that among non-industrial countries to 10.5 percent. The report attributed this trend to the decline in exports from non-industrial areas at a time when the share of their imports in world trade had remained unchanged, a situation due primarily to industrial development, slow growth of primary production, and increased domestic demand in the semi-industrialized countries. Examining the long-term market outlook for primary products in western Europe and North America, the report concluded that prospects for export of raw materials and fuels from non-industrial areas were favorable, but that with respect to the market for most foodstuffs the future was uncertain, depending on the rate of growth of agricultural production in the industrial countries.