The Kennedy Round And U.S. Power

The name of John F. Kennedy has been attached to a protracted session of bargaining for mutual tariff reductions, conducted in Geneva by the professional negotiators of the GATT countries (the adherents to the “General Agreement on Tariff and Trade” of 1947), and intended to promote international trade by progressive, multilateral relaxation of tariffs.

The “Kennedy Round” of bargaining followed after the U.S. Congress had passed the Trade Agreements Act of 1962. The Kennedy label suggested that a better world was being created, and it made criticism a sacrilege. The economic theory of the “Kennedy Round,” however, was oversimplified, and its information on industrial organization was not up-tod...