Series - Correspondence of the Directors, International Economic Department (IECDR) Concerning GATT and WTO

Identity area

Reference code

WB IBRD/IDA DEC-03-47

Title

Correspondence of the Directors, International Economic Department (IECDR) Concerning GATT and WTO

Date(s)

  • February 1988 - July 1996 (predominant September 1993 - July 1995) (Creation)

Level of description

Series

Extent and medium

1.58 linear feet of textual records

Context area

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The first part of the series consists primarily of correspondence (1994 - 1996) of Director Masood Ahmed (IECDR) concerning Bank preparations for drafting an agreement between the World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO). It includes Ahmed's correspondence with Michael Bruno, Vice President and Chief Economist (DECVP), L. Alan Winters, Chief, International Trade Division (IECIT), and other Bank officials throughout the lengthy process of developing a document describing the parameters for a relationship between the Bank and WTO. Comments received from Bank offices on various versions of the document, including the version of the document circulated to the Board on 7 February 1995; a copy of the IMF paper on collaboration with the WTO presented to its Board on 15 February 1995; and the final version of the Agreement between the WTO and World Bank are part of the files. Correspondence concerning a Board Seminar on Bank relations with WTO held in 1995 includes Michael Bruno's 28 July 1995 report to Bank President Wolfensohn on the outcome of the seminar. The first part of the series also includes correspondence and briefing papers prepared for meetings of the Bank and IMF heads (Wolfensohn, Camdessus) with the newly appointed Director, WTO (Ruggiero) in 1995 and a Wolfensohn-Ruggiero meeting in 1996.

The second part of the series contains a copy of a 13 September 1993 letter from IECDR (D.C. Rao) to the Deputy Director General, General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, Jesus de Seade) informing him of the closure of the Bank's Geneva Office and the appointment of consultant John Croome to represent the Bank in GATT and Uruguay Round meetings. Copies of Croome's faxed reports to IECIT regarding meetings of the GATT Council, formal Council committees (Trade Policy Review, Trade Negotiations, Market Access, balance-of-Payments), and other formal and informal meetings he attended as the Bank's representative are in both parts of the series.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

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Records are arranged by subject.

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Conditions governing access

Records are subject to the World Bank Policy on Access to Information.

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Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group.

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An inventory list is available here.

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Related units of description

  • Records of the Office of the Chief Economist -- Records of the Office of the Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist and Later Senior Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist (DECVP) -- Correspondence and Reports of the Office of the Special Representative to the U.N. Organizations in Geneva Concerning Negotiation of General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for the Uruguay Round (WB IBRD/IDA DEC-03-20); Records of the Office of the Chief Economist -- Records of the Office of the Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist and Later Senior Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist (DECVP) -- Reports to Bank Headquarters from Special Representatives to U.N. Organizations in Geneva (WB IBRD/IDA DEC-03-18).

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Rules and/or conventions used

Internal World Bank Group Archives rules based on ISAD(G).

Disclosure status

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Dates of creation revision deletion

3 October 2011

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