Question

Bilateral voluntary export restraints, or VERs, circumvented GATT agreements, because:

A. these nations withdrew their membership to the GATT.

B. the member nations had ceased to recognize GATT as a regulatory body for international trade.

C. VERs were not a recognized trade barrier under the GATT constitution.

D. neither the importing country nor the exporting country complained to the GATT bureaucracy for it to take action.

E. member nations erected a wall of tariff barriers.

Answer 1

VERs circumvented GATT agreements because they were not formally recognized as a trade barrier under the GATT, allowing countries to use them as a protectionist measure without breaching GATT rules.

Step-by-step explanation:

Bilateral voluntary export restraints, or VERs, circumvented GATT agreements because VERs were not a recognized trade barrier under the GATT constitution. The increased use of these bilateral agreements during economic recessions in the Western world in the 1970s and 1980s was a response to protectionist pressures, as developed countries sought to protect domestic industries from international competition and resulting unemployment and factory closures. These arrangements were essentially a workaround to the GATT's aim to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers, capitalizing on the lack of formal recognition of VERs as a barrier to trade within the GATT framework.