Arthur Dark

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Arthur Dunkel (* 26. August 1932 in Lisbon , † 8. June 2005 in Meyrin ) was a Swiss economist and Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT), the predecessor of the WTO .

Life

Arthur Dunkel graduated from the University of Lausanne in 1956 with a degree in economics and business. From 1956 he was negotiator at the Federal Office for Foreign Trade , from 1973 permanent representative of Switzerland at the GATT. In 1976 he became a delegate for trade agreements with the rank of ambassador.

From 1980 to 1993 Arthur Dunkel was General Director of GATT. The later Namibian diplomat Andreas Guibeb temporarily acted as his research assistant .

He was actively involved in the Uruguay round of GATT negotiations . His contribution was essential for the successful conclusion of the negotiation. When the negotiations exceeded the deadline and no compromise had yet been reached, he took the reins and wrote the "Dark Draft" in December 1991. This "draft" compiled the status of the negotiations and proposed a solution to issues on which the negotiations had so far failed. Although the US and India were still negotiating for minor changes, little was changed in the Dark Draft, in the area of ​​agriculture. The Dunkel Draft was then approved and paved the way for the later WTO to emerge.

He held lectureships at the Universities of Friborg and Geneva. The Universities of Freiburg (1980) and Basel (1992) awarded him an honorary doctorate.

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