what is the general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt 
the general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt signed in 1947 by 23 countries is a treaty minimizing barriers to international trade by eliminating or reducing quotas tariffs and subsidies it was intended to boost economic recovery after world war ii 1gatt was expanded and refined over the years leading to the creation in 1995 of the world trade organization wto which absorbed the organization created to implement gatt by then 125 nations were signatories to its agreements which covered about 90 of global trade 12the council for trade in goods known as the goods council is now responsible for gatt and consists of representatives from all wto member countries the chairperson of the goods council is ambassador clare kelly of new zealand the council has 10 committees that address subjects including market access agriculture subsidies and anti dumping measures 34investopedia michela buttignolunderstanding the general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt gatt was created to form rules to end or restrict the most costly and undesirable features of the prewar protectionist period namely quantitative trade barriers such as trade controls and quotas the agreement also provided a system by which to arbitrate commercial disputes among nations the framework enabled a number of multilateral negotiations for the reduction of tariff barriers gatt was regarded as a significant success in the postwar years one of the key achievements of gatt was that of trade without discrimination every signatory member of gatt was to be treated as equal to any other this is known as the most favored nation principle and it was carried through into the wto a practical outcome of this was that once a country had negotiated a tariff cut with some other countries usually its most important trading partners this same cut would automatically apply to all gatt signatories escape clauses did exist whereby countries could negotiate exceptions if their domestic producers would be particularly harmed by tariff cuts 16most nations adopted the most favored nation principle in setting tariffs which largely replaced quotas tariffs preferable to quotas but still a trade barrier were in turn cut steadily in successive rounds of negotiations the most favored nation principle concerning tariffs started with gatt and continues to this day history of the gattgatt held eight rounds of meetings the first beginning in april 1947 the last ending in december 1993 each of the conferences had significant achievements and outcomes this series of meetings and tariff reductions would continue resulting in new gatt provisions in the process in 1964 gatt began to work toward curbing predatory pricing policies known as dumping then in the 1970s an arrangement regarding international trade in textiles known as the multifibre arrangement mfa came into force the next big event was the uruguay round which lasted from 1986 to 1993 with the agreements signed in 1994 and which created the wto 5the average tariff rate fell from around 22 when the general agreement was first signed in geneva in 1947 to around 5 by the end of the uruguay round as the years passed the member countries continued to take on global issues including addressing agriculture disputes and working to protect intellectual property 9the latest round of negotiations among wto members known as the doha development round began in 2001 and is ongoing its aim is to improve the trading prospects of developing countries by introducing lower trade barriers and revised trade rules 10