694            FOREIGN RELATIONS, 195 0, VOLUME I

  'Countries with which the United States had concluded bilateral
trade agreements previously to their becoming contracting parties to
the General Agreement, and the present status of these previous agree-
ments, are as follows:
                                                           Present
            Country               Signed       Effective    status
Belgium                        Feb. 27, 1935 May 1, 1935 Inoperative
Brazil                         Feb. 2, 1935 Jan. 1, 1936 Inoperative
Canada (1st agreement)         Nov. 15, 1935 Jan. 1, 1936 Superseded
       (2nd agreement)         Nov. 17, 1938 Jan. 1, 1939 Inoperative
       (1st-fox fur)           Dec. 30, 1939 Jan. 1, 1940 Superseded
       (2nd-fox fur)           Dec. 13, 1940 Dec. 20, 1940 Terminated
Cuba                           Aug. 24, 1934 Sept. 3, 1934 Inoperative
     (1st supplementary)       Dec. 18, 1939 Dec. 23, 1939 Inoperative
     (2nd supplementary)       Dec. 23, 1941 Jan. 5, 1942 Inoperative
Czechoslovakia'                Mar. 7, 1938 Apr. 16, 1938 Terminated
France                         May 6, 1936 June 15, 1936 Inoperative
Haiti                          Mar. 28, 1935 June 3, 1935 Superseded
Luxemburg                      Feb. 27, 1935 May  1, 1935 Inoperative
Netherlands                    Dec. 20, 1935 Feb. 1, 1936 Inoperative
United Kingdom                 Nov. 17, 1938 Jan. 1, 1939 Inoperative


                           Editorial Note

   During the year 1950 there; were two sessions of the Contracting
Parties (CP's) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT): at Geneva, Switzerland, February 23-April 3, and at Tor-
quay, England, November 2-December 16. Additionally, the "third
round" of tariff negotiations under GATT was initiated at Torquay
on iSeptember 28. Because of the technical complexity of the issues and
the volume of documentation, the treatment here has necessarily been
very selective. A principal effort of the United States at the Fourth
and Fifth Sessions of the Contracting Parties was focussed on the
question of the trading practices of the participating governments and
the effect of such practices, in the form of import and export controls
(restrictions), on the basic GATT objective of the general reduction of
barriers to international trade. Three of the units of documentation
that follow 'are concerned with these matters. A fourth unit has to do
wvth organizational problems: specifically, the change in United States
policy with respect to the proposed International Trade Organiza-
tion iand the relationship between that problem and the question of
establishing a continuing administration for GATT. These were mat-
ters considered at either or both the Fourth and Fifth Sessions of the
Contracting Parties. The last two units are concerned with aspects of
the United States negotiating position with respect to the tariff dis-
cussions which opened at Torquay on September 28. Documentation on
the actual tariff negotiations is scheduled for publication in Foreign
Relations, 1951, volume I.