The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was the first one of its kind to ever be created. It included 23 countries and was to function as the first worldwide multilateral free trade agreement. The agreement itself was formed not too long after world war two and was in effect from 30th June 1948 and lasted until 1st January 1995 whereby it ended as a result of being replaced by the World Trade Organization. GATT itself was a set of multilateral trade agreements that were aimed at the abolition of quotas and the reduction of tariff duties among the contracting nations. The main purpose behind the creation of GATT was to eliminate harmful trade protectionism. Focusing directly on its preamble, its purpose can be seen to be the "substantial
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However when this failed to happen it therefore became necessary to amplify and enlarge the agreement thus seeking to include several more of the succeeding nations. The International Trade Organisation (ITO) was the proposed international institution that had been predetermined to succeed GATT on the regulation of trade however this was nothing of the sort was actually realised until the creation of WTO which was created by …show more content…
There were additions in the form of a section on development added in the 1960s and “plurilateral” agreements in the 1970s, and efforts to reduce tariffs further continued. Much of this was achieved through a series of multilateral negotiations known as “trade rounds”, these seen the biggest leaps forward in international trade liberalization have come through these rounds which were held under GATT’s auspices. GATT consisted of eight rounds all of which were hugely focused around reducing and eliminating tariffs and did so very effectively. However the Kennedy Round in the mid-sixties brought about a GATT Anti-Dumping Agreement and a section on development. The Tokyo Round during the seventies also had a lightly different focus and as a result was the first major attempt to tackle trade barriers that do not take the form of tariffs, and to improve the system. The eighth and final round, the Uruguay Round of 1986-94, was the last and most extensive of all. This led to the creation WTO and a new set of
However when this failed to happen it therefore became necessary to amplify and enlarge the agreement thus seeking to include several more of the succeeding nations. The International Trade Organisation (ITO) was the proposed international institution that had been predetermined to succeed GATT on the regulation of trade however this was nothing of the sort was actually realised until the creation of WTO which was created by …show more content…
There were additions in the form of a section on development added in the 1960s and “plurilateral” agreements in the 1970s, and efforts to reduce tariffs further continued. Much of this was achieved through a series of multilateral negotiations known as “trade rounds”, these seen the biggest leaps forward in international trade liberalization have come through these rounds which were held under GATT’s auspices. GATT consisted of eight rounds all of which were hugely focused around reducing and eliminating tariffs and did so very effectively. However the Kennedy Round in the mid-sixties brought about a GATT Anti-Dumping Agreement and a section on development. The Tokyo Round during the seventies also had a lightly different focus and as a result was the first major attempt to tackle trade barriers that do not take the form of tariffs, and to improve the system. The eighth and final round, the Uruguay Round of 1986-94, was the last and most extensive of all. This led to the creation WTO and a new set of