Trade Policy Research Centre

A free market organisation which closed down in the 1980s. A successor body is the Cordell Hull Institute

Of lasting value was the Centre’s pioneering work on how to tackle in multilateral trade negotiations (i) the competition-distorting effects of non-tariff measures, (ii) the extension of the trade-liberalizing process to the services sector and (iii) the reduction of levels of farm-support and the import restrictions required to sustain them.

Closely associated with the Centre’s work over two decades were many eminent names in international economics, commercial diplomacy and public discussion. Most prominent among them in shaping the research program were Harry G. Johnson, W.M. Corden, Martin Wolf and Brian Hindley.

The first three directors-general of the GATT actively encouraged and participated in the Centre’s activities – Sir Eric Wyndham White on the board, Olivier Long in two high-level groups and Arthur Dunkel in numerous international meetings. Others associated with the GATT – from one of its principal architects, James E. Meade, to senior officials like Gardner Patterson and Jan Tumlir, also on the board, and the legal scholar Robert E. Hudec – helped to stimulate thought and analysis.

Many others in public life took part in the Centre’s high-level meetings, among them William E. Brock III, Lydia Dunn, Count Otto Lambsdorff, Staffan Burenstam Linder, Harald B. Malmgren, Nam Duck-Woo, Saburo Okita, Cecil Parkinson, Helga Steeg, Robert S. Strauss, Amnuay Viravan and Clayton Yeutter.

People

In Western Europe: V.N. Balasubramanyam, Sir Alec Cairncross, W.M. Corden, Gérard Curzon, Victoria Curzon Price, Juergen Donges, Herbert Giersch, Sidney Golt, Sir Roy Harrod, Theodor Heidhues, David Henderson, Brian Hindley, Pierre Jacquet, T.E. Josling, Deepak Lal, Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Assar Lindbeck, I.M.D. Little, Alasdair MacBean, T.M. Rybczynski, Stefan Tangerman and Jean Waelbroeck.

In North America: Robert E. Baldwin, Jagdish Bhagwati, Isaiah Frank, Rodney de C. Grey, D. Gale Johnson, Richard Lipsey and Ingo Walter; and

In the Asia-Pacific region: Kym Anderson, Gary Banks, Kihwan Kim, Peter J. Lloyd, David Robertson, Hadi Soesastro, Richard Snape, Andrew Stoeckel, Augustine H.H. Tan and Soogil Young.