General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

MoneyBestPal Team
A multilateral agreement on international trade that was in effect from 1948 until 1995.
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From 1948 until 1995, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) served as an international trade multilateral pact. In order to encourage free trade and lower tariffs and other trade obstacles among its member nations, it was established. 


Because GATT was the first agreement to offer a framework for international trade talks and dispute resolution, it marked a crucial turning point in the history of trade.

Many of the major trading nations in the globe were among the member countries who negotiated the GATT. The agreement defined a set of norms and guidelines that its member nations consented to abide by in their commercial ties with one another. The most favored nation clause, which compelled members to apply the same tariff rates to all other members, and the national treatment principle, which forced members to treat imported goods and services equally to domestic ones, were two of the GATT's most important provisions.

In 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) took the role of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO adopted many of GATT's clauses and broadened its purview to encompass new areas including intellectual property rights and services trade. GATT is still a significant historical turning point in the creation of international trade law and policy, nevertheless.
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