-------------- U -------------- UNCONDITIONAL MOST-FAVORED-NATION TREATMENT. See Conditional Most-Favored-Nation Treatment; and Most-Favored-Nation Treatment. UNCTAD. See United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. UNCTAD/GATT INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTER (ITC). See International Trade Center UNCTAD/GATT. UNDERSTANDING ON NOTIFICATION, CONSULTATION, DISPUTE SETTLEMENT AND SURVEILLANCE. See Dispute Settlement; and Framework Agreement. UNDERWRITER. As used in the insurance industry, an insurance company, investment banker or other financial agent that accepts the risk of insuring specified goods, especially in shipping. See also Capital Market; Insurance; and Risk. UNDP. See United Nations Development Program. UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES. Unusual government support to firms -- such as export subsidies, or certain anti-competitive practices by firms themselves, such as dumping, boycotts or discriminatory shipping arrangements -- that result in competitive advantages for those firms in international trade. See also Boycott; Dumping; Export Subsidies; Restrictive Business Practices; Section 301; and Trade Act of 1974. UNILATERAL. An action taken by a single country, on its own initiative, and not in any way dependent upon, or conditional upon, actions of any other country or countries. See also Bilateral; and Multilateral. UNIT VALUE. The quotient showing the total value of a particular trade flow during a specified period divided by its volume.Unit values are often reflected in international trade statistics instead of prices. See also Secular Trend; and Terms of Trade. UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. See Substantial New Program of Action. UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT (UNCTAD). A subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly that seeks to focus international attention on economic measures that might accelerate Third World development. The first conference, UNCTAD-I, was convened in Geneva in 1964, and sessions were held quadrennially up to 1976: UNCTAD-II, New Delhi, 1968; UNCTAD-III, Santiago, 1972; and UNCTAD-IV, Nairobi, 1976. UNCTAD-V met in Manila in 1979, UNCTAD-VI in Belgrade in 1983, UNCTAD-VII in Geneva in 1987, and UNCTAD VIII in Cartagena, Colombia in 1992. The UNCTAD Trade and Development Board, which exercises the powers of the conference between its sessions, meets twice a year; and the main UNCTAD committees -- which include those concerned with commodities, shipping, manufactures, invisibles and financing related to trade, and the transfer of technology -- meet several times between sessions of the conference. Negotiations in UNCTAD take place principally between "Group B" (developed countries)and the "Group of 77" (developing countries) which separately determine their own positions through intra-group discussions prior to the negotiations. UNCTAD is supported by a permanent secretariat based in Geneva. UNCTAD has been an executing agency for UNDP technical assistance projects since 1968, and now administers such projects as ports management, regional economic integration, the transfer of technology, the improvement of customs procedures and other fields related to its programs and activities. See also Common Fund; Economic Cooperation Among Developing Countries; Generalized System of Preferences; Group B; Group D; Group of 77; Integrated Program for Commodities; International Trade Center UNCTAD/GATT; Restrictive Business Practices; and United Nations Development Program. UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (UNDP). The arm of the United Nations that provides financial resources to support technical assistance activities designed to stimulate economic development in developing countries, normally through such specialized agencies of the United Nations system as the World Health Organization, International Labor Organization, and Food and Agriculture Organization, which serve as "executing agencies" for UNDP. UNITED NATIONS MONETARY AND FINANCIAL CONFERENCE. See Bretton Woods Conference. UNITED STATES PRICE (USP). The price compared to foreign market value to determine whether imported merchandise is sold at less than fair value. The U.S. price is either the purchase price or the exporter's sales price. See also Level of Trade Adjustments. UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE (USTR). A Cabinet-level official with the rank of ambassador who is the principal adviser to the U.S. president on international trade policy. The U.S. trade representative is concerned with the formulation of U.S. trade policy, the expansion of U.S. exports, U.S. participation in GATT, commodity issues, East-West and North-South trade,and direct investment related to trade. As chairman of the U.S. Trade Policy Committee, he/she is also the primary official responsible for U.S. participation in all international trade negotiations. Prior to the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, which created the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the comparable official was known as the president's special representative for trade negotiations (STR), a position first established by the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. See also General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; Negotiations; Trade Agreements Act of 1979; Trade Expansion Act of 1962; and Trade Policy Committee. UNIVERSAL COPYRIGHT CONVENTION. See Bern Convention. UPSTREAM SUBSIDIES. Subsidies provided to a manufacturer's supplier of inputs for a product. To be included in the calculation of the countervailing duty, the upstream subsidy must provide a "competitive benefit", or be passed through,to the downstream producer of the product under investigation and must have a significant effect on the cost of manufacturing the product under investigation. Petitioners must submit substantial argumentation and evidence before an upstream subsidy investigation is started. See also Countervailing Duties; Subsidies Code; and Subsidy. UR. See Uruguay Round. URUGUAY ROUND. The Uruguay Round, concluded in Geneva in December 1993, was the latest series of multilateral trade negotiations aimed at revising, updating and expanding the coverage of the GATT. The Round was formally launched in September 1986 at the GATT Ministerial in Punta del Este, Uruguay. The negotiations focused on the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and on the development of clear, enforceable international trading rules. The provisions of the Uruguay Round agreement accorded more time to developing countries than industrialized countries for coming into compliance; least developed countries sometimes were accorded even more time or exempted altogether. The following are highlights of the agreement. *Tariffs: GATT member countries agreed to cut their import tariffs by a 36-percent average. *Textiles: Countries agreed to end the 20-year-old system of import quotas on textiles and apparel by 2005; quotas will be converted into tariffs, which will be reduced over time. *Agriculture: Countries agreed to scale back direct export subsidies by 36 percent below rates in place between 1986 and 1990, by 2001, and to reduce the quantity of subsidized commodities exported. They also agreed to convert quotas, import licenses and other import limits into tariffs that would be gradually reduced. *Services: Countries agreed to create basic rules so that services providers are afforded the same treatment overseas as in their home markets. Negotiations in some services sectors will continue into 1996. *Intellectual Property: Countries agreed to protect and enforce patents, trademarks and copyrights, and to limit the trade of counterfeited creative works and inventions. *Investments: Countries agreed to eliminate investment measures that limit or force certain types of investments, to offer "national treatment" to foreign investors and to eliminate quotas and other restraints. *Subsidies: Countries agreed to make rules concerning the trade- legality of subsidies more predictable by defining three classes: prohibited, actionable and non-actionable subsidies. *Dumping: Countries agreed to create more detailed rules governing the ability to GATT members to take action against the imports of a product sold at an unfairly discounted export price. *Safeguards: Countries agreed to strengthen rules concerning temporary import limits applied to protect domestic industries from surges of fairly traded imports (i.e., safeguards). Members agreed not to maintain safeguard protections for more than eight years, and to prohibit "gray area measures" -- voluntary export restraints and other informal agreements to curtail fairly traded imports. *Institutional Structure: Members agreed to create a World Trade Organization, a permanent organization, that would replace the GATT (which was meant to be a temporary structure) with a stronger institution. *Dispute Resolution: Members agreed to strengthen GATT's dispute resolution rules by allowing countries only to block findings by GATT expert panels if all members oppose the finding. See also Brussels Ministerial; Cairns Group; Dispute Settlement; Dumping; Final Act; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; Montreal Ministerial; Multi-Fiber Arrangement Regarding International Trade in Textiles; Multilateral Trade Negotiations; Multilateral Trade Organization; Punta del Este Ministerial; Quarantine, Sanitary and Health Laws and Regulations; Round; Safeguard; Services; Special and Differential Treatment; Subsidies; Super 301; Trade Policy Review Mechanism; Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; Trade-Related Investment Measures; Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods and Services; and World Trade Organization. U.S.-CANADA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (FTA or CFTA). A free trade agreement implemented on January 1, 1989, between the United States and Canada following approval and implementation of its terms by the Congress in 1988. The United States and Canada decided to suspend the FTA upon NAFTA's entry into force, January 1, 1994. The agreement provided for the elimination of tariffs on all U.S.-Canada trade by 1998. The agreement also provided improved access with respect to government procurement and a code of principles on services trade, including national treatment, the right to sell across borders, the right of establishment and transparency in regulations. Additional commitments were made in the areas of telecommunications, tourism, financial services and architectural services. Provisions in this comprehensive free trade agreement dealt with foreign investment regulation, bilateral energy trade and access to energy supplies, border crossing procedures for certain professional and technical personnel, agriculture and dispute settlement. The FTA was the world's largest and most comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement until NAFTA entered into force. See also Bilateral Trade Agreement; Common External Tariff; Customs Union; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; North American Free Trade Agreement; and U.S.-Canada Trade Commission. U.S.-CANADA TRADE COMMISSION. Created under Chapter 18 of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement to consult on all matters affecting the implementation and operation of the FTA. See also North American Free Trade Agreement; and U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement. U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION (USITC). Formerly the U.S. Tariff Commission, created in 1916 by an act of Congress. Its mandate was broadened and its name changed by the Trade Act of 1974. The USITC is an independent fact-finding agency of the U.S. government, reporting to Congress, that studies the effects of tariffs and other restraints to trade on the U.S. economy. It conducts public hearings to assist in determining whether particular U.S. industries are injured or threatened with injury by dumping, export subsidies in other countries or rapidly rising imports. It also studies the probable economic impact on specific U.S. industries of proposed reductions in U.S. tariffs and non-tariff barriers to imports. Its six commissioners are appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate, for nine-year terms. See also Countervailing Duties; Dumping; Escape Clause; Export Subsidies; Imports; Peril Point; Tariff; and Trade Act of 1974. U.S.-ISRAEL FREE TRADE AREA AGREEMENT. The first free trade agreement entered into by the United States took effect on September 1, 1985. The agreement called for the staged elimination of tariffs between the two countries over a 10-year period. All tariffs will be eliminated by January 1, 1995. The agreement also established a Joint Commission to supervise the agreement and to periodically review the bilateral relationship. See also Bilateral Trade Agreement; Binding Concession; Consultation; Tariff; and Trade Agreement. USITC. See U.S. International Trade Commission. USP. See United States Price. U.S. REVENUE ACT OF 1971. See Domestic International Sales Corporation. U.S. STRATEGIC AND CRITICAL STOCKPILING ACT OF 1946. See Strategic Stockpiles. U.S. TARIFF COMMISSION. See U.S. International Trade Commission. USTR. See United States Trade Representative. U.S. TRADE POLICY COMMITTEE. See Trade Policy Committee. UTILITY. The ability of goods and services to satisfy human wants or desires. Since utility involves subjective appraisal and depends upon the personal tastes of the consumer, it cannot be measured by any standard yardstick. See also Consumption; Demand; Goods; Price; Services; and Value.