History - GATT To WTO
History - GATT To WTO
History - GATT To WTO
The GATT was established to set out regulations to eliminate or limit the most
costly and inefficient characteristics of the pre-war protectionist period, notably
quantitative trade barriers like trade restrictions and quotas. The agreement
also established a mechanism for resolving international commercial disputes,
as well as a framework for multilateral tariff reduction discussions. In the post-
war years, the GATT was seen as a great success. Trade without discrimination
was one of the GATT’s major accomplishments. Every GATT signatory was to be
treated on an equal footing with the others.
The 550-page “Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of
Multilateral Trade Discussions,” signed by ministers in Marrakesh on April 15,
1994, comprised of legal provisions outlining the results of the negotiations
since the Round began in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in September 1986. The
Final Act also included texts of ministerial decisions and declarations that
explained important terms of the agreements. With two notable exceptions, the
final act covered all of the bargaining topics mentioned in the Punta del Este
Declaration. The first was the outcome of “market access discussions,” in which
individual nations had made legally enforceable pledges to decrease or abolish
certain tariffs and non-tariff trade obstacles. National schedules, which were an
important element of the Final Act, were used to record these concessions. The
second was the “first pledges” on service trade liberalisation. These
liberalisation pledges were also included in national schedules.