Pioneering multilateralism: the sugar agreements 1864 – 1914

Abstract

This paper examines the negotiations which led to the Brussels Convention of 1902 for the abolition of subsidies on sugar exports, showing how the practice of multilateral commodity trade negotiations was an outcome of this experience. Encompassing diverse fiscal systems, these negotiations began a process of pluri-national harmonization of taxation criteria and regulations, which forced changes to national statutes. They also initiated new forms of economic negotiations and coexistence. When war broke out in 1914, undoing agreements and inaugurating a new era of strict government control of economic activities, multilateralism had been established as a conceptual alternative and a practical possibility.SUGAR TRADE; MULTILATERAL AGREEMENTS; TARIFFS; EXPORT BOUNTIES