"GATT" redirects here.

For other uses, see GATT

(disambiguation).
The General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (typically abbreviated GATT) was negotiated
during the UN Conference on Trade and
Employment and was the outcome of the failure of
negotiating governments to create the International
Trade Organization (ITO). GATT was formed in 1949
and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by
the World Trade Organization in 1995. The original
GATT text (GATT 1947) is still in effect under the
WTO framework, subject to the modifications of
GATT 1994.[1]

Rounds
GATT held a total of 8 rounds.

[hide]GATT and WTO trade rounds[2]

Name Start Duration Countries Subjects covered Achievements

Signing of GATT, 45,000

Geneva April 1947 7 months 23 Tariffs tariff concessions affecting
$10 billion of trade

Annecy April 1949 5 months 13 Tariffs Countries exchanged some

 5,000 tariff concessions

Countries exchanged some

September 8,700 tariff concessions,
Torquay 8 months 38 Tariffs
1950 cutting the 1948 tariff levels
by 25%

Geneva $2.5 billion in tariff

January 1956 5 months 26 Tariffs, admission of Japan
II reductions

September Tariff concessions worth

Dillon 11 months 26 Tariffs
1960 $4.9 billion of world trade

Tariff concessions worth

Kennedy May 1964 37 months 62 Tariffs, Anti-dumping
$40 billion of world trade

Tariff reductions worth

September Tariffs, non-tariff measures, "framework"
Tokyo 74 months 102 more than $300 billion
1973 agreements
dollars achieved

The round led to the

creation of WTO, and
extended the range of trade
negotiations, leading to
major reductions in tariffs
Tariffs, non-tariff measures, rules, services, (about 40%) and
September
Uruguay 87 months 123 intellectual property, dispute settlement, agricultural subsidies, an
1986
textiles, agriculture, creation of WTO, etc agreement to allow full
access for textiles and
clothing from developing
countries, and an extension
of intellectual property
rights.

Tariffs, non-tariff measures, agriculture,

The round is not yet
Doha November 2001 ? 141 labor standards, environment, competition,
concluded.
investment, transparency, patents etc

[edit]Annecy Round - 1949

The second round took place in 1949 in Annecy, France. 13 countries took part in the round.
The main focus of the talks was more tariff reductions, around 5000 in total.
[edit]Torquay Round - 1951
The third round occurred in Torquay, England in 1950. Thirty-eight countries took part in the
round. 8,700 tariff concessions were made totaling the remaining amount of tariffs to ¾ of the
tariffs which were in effect in 1948. The contemporaneous rejection by the U.S. of the Havana
Charter signified the establishment of the GATT as a governing world body.[3]

[edit]Geneva Round - 1955-1956

The fourth round returned to Geneva in 1955 and lasted until May 1956. Twenty-six countries
took part in the round. $2.5 billion in tariffs were eliminated or reduced.

[edit]Dillon Round - 1960-1962

The fifth round occurred once more in Geneva and lasted from 1960-1962. The talks were
named after U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Under Secretary of State, Douglas Dillon, who
first proposed the talks. Twenty-six countries took part in the round. Along with reducing over
$4.9 billion in tariffs, it also yielded discussion relating to the creation of the European Economic
Community (EEC).

[edit]Kennedy Round - 1964-1967

Kennedy Round took place from 1964-1967.

[edit]Tokyo Round - 1973-1979

Reduced tariffs and established new regulations aimed at controlling the proliferation of non-
tariff barriers and voluntary export restrictions. 102 countries took part in the round.
Concessions were made on $190 billion worth.

[edit]Uruguay Round - 1986-1993

The Uruguay Round began in 1986. It was the most ambitious round to date, hoping to expand
the competence of the GATT to important new areas such as services, capital, intellectual
property,textiles, and agriculture. 123 countries took part in the round.

Agriculture was essentially exempted from previous agreements as it was given special status
in the areas of import quotas and export subsidies, with only mild caveats. However, by the time
of the Uruguay round, many countries considered the exception of agriculture to be sufficiently
glaring that they refused to sign a new deal without some movement on agricultural products.
These fourteen countries came to be known as the "Cairns Group", and included mostly small
and medium sized agricultural exporters such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, and New
Zealand.
The Agreement on Agriculture of the Uruguay Round continues to be the most substantial trade
liberalization agreement in agricultural products in the history of trade negotiations. The goals of
the agreement were to improve market access for agricultural products, reduce domestic
support of agriculture in the form of price-distorting subsidies and quotas, eliminate over time
export subsidies on agricultural products and to harmonize to the extent possible sanitary and
phytosanitary measures between member countries.

[edit]GATT and the World Trade Organization

Main article: Uruguay Round

In 1993, the GATT was updated (GATT 1994) to include new obligations upon its signatories.
One of the most significant changes was the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The 75 existing GATT members and the European Communities became the founding
members of the WTO on 1 January 1995. The other 52 GATT members rejoined the WTO in
the following two years (the last being Congo in 1997). Since the founding of the WTO, 21 new
non-GATT members have joined and 29 are currently negotiating membership. There are a total
of 153 member countries in the WTO.

Of the original GATT members, Syria[4][5] and the SFR Yugoslavia has not rejoined the WTO.
Since FR Yugoslavia, (renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and with membership negotiations
later split in two), is not recognised as a direct SFRY successor state; therefore, its application
is considered a new (non-GATT) one. The General Council of WTO, on 4 May 2010, agreed to
establish a working party to examine the request of Syria for WTO membership[6][7]. The
contracting parties who founded the WTO ended official agreement of the "GATT 1947" terms
on 31 December 1995.

Whereas GATT was a set of rules agreed upon by nations, the WTO is an institutional body.
The WTO expanded its scope from traded goods to trade within the service
sector and intellectual property rights. Although it was designed to serve multilateral
agreements, during several rounds of GATT negotiations (particularly
the Tokyo Round) plurilateral agreements created selective trading and caused fragmentation
among members. WTO arrangements are generally a multilateral agreement settlement
mechanism of GATT.[8]

What is the WTO?

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization
dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO
agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and
ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services,
exporters, and importers conduct their business.

Introduction
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was signed in
1947, is a multilateral agreement regulating trade among about 150 countries.
According to its preamble, the purpose of the GATT is the "substantial reduction of
tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal
and mutually advantageous basis."
The GATT functioned de facto as an organization, conducting eight rounds of talks
addressing various trade issues and resolving international trade disputes. The
Uruguay Round, which was completed on December 15, 1993 after seven years of
negotiations, resulted in an agreement among 117 countries (including the U.S.) to
reduce trade barriers and to create more comprehensive and enforceable world
trade rules. The agreement coming out of this round, the Final Act Embodying the
Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, was signed in April
1994. The Uruguay Round agreement was approved and implemented by the U.S.
Congress in December 1994, and went into effect on January 1, 1995.
WorldTradeLaw.n et (http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK00934)
contains WTO negotiating history materials.
This agreement also created the World Trade Organization (WTO), which came
into being on January 1, 1995. The WTO implements the agreement, provides a
forum for negotiating additional reductions of trade barriers and for settling policy
disputes, and enforces trade rules. The WTO launched the ninth round of
multilateral trade negotiations under the "Doha Development Agenda" (DDA or
Doha Round) in 2001. "Doha Development Agenda: Negotiations, Implementation
and Development" provides information about the Doha Round and links to texts
that have been generated by the negotiations
(http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm).
GATT and WTO materials are available in the Goodson Law Library and in Perkins.
The Davis Library at the University of North Carolina has been a depository library
for GATT materials, and continues to receive most of the materials published by the
WTO.
Definition
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Treaty organizationaffiliated
with the United Nations whose purpose was to facilitate international
trade. The primary actions of the organization were to freeze and
reduce tariff levels on various commodities. GATT was created in 1947,
and was originally intended to become a part of
the InternationalTrade Organization (ITO); however, the ITO failed to
be created, so the GATT was left as an independent organization. In
1994, GATT was superseded by the WTO.