The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was a multilateral agreement regulating international trade. 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." It 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 signed in 1948 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World Trade Organization in 1995.
The original GATT text (GATT 1958) is still in effect under the WTO framework, subject to the modifications of GATT 1994.
Read more about General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade: Rounds, GATT and The World Trade Organization
Famous quotes containing the words general, agreement and/or trade:
“It has been the struggle between privileged men who have managed to get hold of the levers of power and the people in general with their vague and changing aspirations for equality, for justice, for some kind of gentler brotherhood and peace, which has kept that balance of forces we call our system of government in equilibrium.”
—John Dos Passos (18961970)
“That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.”
—Eric Hoffer (19021983)
“Killers, huh? Id trade the pair of you for a good Camp Fire Girl.”
—Daniel Taradash (b. 1913)