Summary and Conclusions

Abstract

Between the end of World War II and the 1980s discrimination had not been an important issue in trade policy. The most important preferential arrangements were considered acceptable by most trading countries. Thus the Treaty of Rome was viewed as a step towards economic union rather than as being a case of discrimination for its own sake, while the generalised system of preferences for developing countries does not discriminate effectively.¹ Other preferential arrangements had seemed of little importance, but their insidious accumulation by the European Community means that the Community has to come to trade with only a handful of countries on an MFN basis by the 1980s.