| Notes |
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its preamble, its purpose was the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis."
The GATT was first discussed during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization (ITO). It was signed by 23 nations in Geneva on 30 October 1947, and took effect on 1 January 1948. It remained in effect until the signature by 123 nations in Marrakesh on 14 April 1994, of the Uruguay Round Agreements which established the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 1 January 1995. The WTO is the successor to the GATT, and the original GATT text (GATT 1947) is still in effect under the WTO framework, subject to the modifications of GATT 1994.[1][2] Nations that were not party in 1995 to the GATT need to meet the minimum conditions spelled out in specific documents before they can accede; in September 2019, the list contained 36 nations.[3]
The GATT, and its successor the WTO, have successfully reduced tariffs. The average tariff levels for the major GATT participants were about 22% in 1947, but were 5% after the Uruguay Round in 1999.[4] Experts attribute part of these tariff changes to GATT and the WTO.[5][6][7]
Contents
1 History
1.1 Initial round
1.2 Annecy Round: 1949
1.3 Torquay Round: 1951
1.4 Geneva Round: 1955–56
1.5 Dillon Round: 1960–62
1.6 Kennedy Round: 1964–67
1.7 Tokyo Round: 1973–79
1.8 Formation of Quadrilateral Group: 1981
1.9 Uruguay Round: 1986–94
1.10 Doha Round: 2001-
2 GATT and the World Trade Organization
3 Effects on trade liberalization
4 Article 24
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
History
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is a portmanteau for a series of global trade negotiations which were held in a total of nine rounds between 1947 and 1995. The GATT was first conceived in the aftermath of the Allied victory in the Second World War at the 1947 United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment (UNCTE), at which the International Trade Organization (ITO) was one of the ideas proposed. It was hoped that the ITO would be run alongside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). More than 50 nations negotiated ITO and organizing its founding charter, but after the withdrawal of the United States these negotiations collapsed.[8]
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GATT and WTO trade rounds[9][10][11]
Name Start Duration Countries Subjects covered Achievements
Switzerland Geneva April 1947 7 months 23 Tariffs Signing of GATT, 45,000 tariff concessions affecting $10 billion of trade |