General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Agreement designed to provide an international forum to encourage regulation of international trade. The original agreement was signed in 1947, shortly after World War II. It was followed in 1948 by the creation of an international organization, within the United Nations, to support the agreement and to encourage free trade between nations by reducing tariffs, subsidies, quotas, and regulations that discriminate against imported products. The agency GATT was effectively replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 1995, following the Uruguay Round. The legal agreement still exists although it was updated in 1994 to reflect a shift from trade in goods to trade in goods, services, and intellectual property. The new GATT agreements are administered by the WTO.

During the round of talks that begun in 1986 in Uruguay, the USA opposed European Community (EC) restrictions on agricultural imports, but argued to maintain restrictions on textile imports to the USA. Talks repeatedly stalled over a plan to reduce farm subsidies, but the round eventually ended in 1993 when negotiators from the European Union (formerly, to 1993, the EC) and USA reached agreement, and the resulting Final Act was signed on 15 April 1994 in Marrakesh, Morocco.