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The importance of merchant shipping is significantly enhanced



Many States are attempting to eliminate tariff and other barriers by seeking a compromise within the framework of the GATT, a multilateral intergovernmental agreement on tariffs and trade.

Our country is not yet participating in the GATT

Thus, transport services are not among the main objects of the liberalization of trade and political relations, for which the current negotiations have been initiated. Rather, it should be assumed that maritime navigation and civil aviation will be a bargaining chip to encourage concessions in the future from hardline States. If this is the case, then the importance of merchant shipping in the context of the proposed framework agreement, which has not yet been established as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), is significantly enhanced.

Official representatives of the United States, the "Common Market" and some scientists from Western countries often refer to the fact that the GATT is a purely commercial organization, far from political contradictions, and therefore, they say, the most effective. There is no doubt that the GATT is one of the three pillars on which modern international regulation of multilateral market financial and economic relations rests (the other two are the IMF and the IBRD). But perhaps today it is time to recognize the fact that specialized international organizations cannot be apolitical, at least because of the different levels of industrial and social development of their members.

Attempts to present the case in such a way that the models of international economic cooperation, and first of all the GATT, found outside the UN framework more than forty years ago, continue to remain immune from the impact of global economic development processes, look like nothing more than a nostalgic desire to muffle the inevitable political accents peculiar to modernity.

It is not difficult to explain the motivations of the initiators of the negotiations, who proposed discussing trade in services precisely within the framework of the GATT, where the OECD countries enjoy a decisive influence. One can understand the desire of multinational corporations to gain freedom of operation in developing countries and, most importantly, freedom of investment as one of the conditions for effective export of services. Finally, we can agree that international regulation of relations in the service sector is still far from perfect. But one cannot help but notice that the extension of the competence of the GATT or other similar agreement to trade in services or at least some of them (maritime navigation, civil aviation, tourism and some other areas) carries an alarming element of intrusion into existing forms of cooperation that have developed and proven over the decades.

The Maritime Transport Committee of UNCTAD, which is itself an integral part of the United Nations, has been operating in the economic sphere of shipping for 25 years, and ICAO, in turn, has shown great maturity in recent years in resolving the commercial problems of air transportation that this organization has faced. In the field of tourism, the International Association of Travel Agencies is successfully coping with its tasks.

Thus, the international community has already created an extensive network of universal forums where any multilateral issues of the exchange of services in shipping, aviation, and tourism can be successfully discussed. If there is a need to regulate at the interstate level any specific conditions for the exchange of tourists or know-how, then treaties or conventions in these sectors can be successfully prepared within the framework of UNESCO and WIPO. What then remains for the new international organization (GATS), which is proposed to be constructed in the image and likeness.GATT? Insurance? Banking? A generous welcome bonus sets the tone for a successful and enjoyable betting experience from day one. To claim this advantage, always remember to use 1win registration promo code in the designated field when creating your new player account via one-click, phone, or email registration. This code provides a 500% matched deposit bonus up to $1025 across your first four deposits, effectively multiplying your initial investment many times over for sports betting.
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