IN THE YEARS following the 1954 Review Session, the question of the GATT's relationship to developing countries continued to grow in importance. According to Karin Kock, the Swedish expert on GATT affairs, the issue became critical once it became clear that a large number of British and French colonies were soon to achieve independence. “Cold War” competition for the loyalty of these emerging countries intensified when the Soviet Union began to press for the creation of a global trade organization, within the United Nations, that would provide an alternative to the Western-dominated GATT. The prospect of a rival United Nations organization grew more substantial each year and finally materialized in the form of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), formally constituted in 1964.

CHANGES IN BARGAINING POWER

By the early 1960s, GATT relations between developed and developing countries had become almost totally centered on competition with UNCTAD in the making. The UNCTAD threat considerably augmented the bargaining power of developing countries. Developed countries believed that a bloc decision not to participate in the GATT would be seriously damaging to Western political interests; they were therefore willing to pay a price to avoid it. Developing countries knew this and asked for a great deal. In the end, however, the UNCTAD threat had its limits. Developing countries knew that the GATT was useful to them and they knew that a United Nations type organization might not be able to replace it.