STOSUNKI POLSKA–GATT W LATACH 1947–1967
Polish Relations with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the author describes the negotiations which took place from 1947 to 1967 in respect of Poland’s membership of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades (GATT). They are set within not only the context of the East-West rivalry of the Cold War, but also within that of the opposing interests of both the European Economic Community and the USA. In the author’s opinion, Poland's achievement of the aim of the negotiations, inasmuch as she was granted membership of GATT in 1967, was only a partial success, since her participation therein might well be dubbed ‘second-class membership’. The result of the adoption of the Western European vision of trade with the East was the less than fully rightful participation in the Agreement on the part of some states, effected not only in the case of Poland, but also in that of other socialist states such as Romania and Hungary, the membership applications of which received positive verification in the 1970s. These states had no chance of reintegration with the West and, until the fall of the Berlin Wall, their presence in GATT was purely symbolic in meaning. In the 1960s and 70s, it was definitely still too soon for multilateralism in East-West relations.

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