General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) • September 22nd, 2021
Contract Type FiledSeptember 22nd, 2021The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (hereinafter “GATT”) of 1947 emerged from the post-Second World War negotiations on international economic cooperation. These negotiations resulted in the Bretton Woods agreements – the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development – but there was the belief that the Bretton Woods institutions needed to be complemented by an organization dealing with trade. The negotiations for the Havana Charter, that would incorporate an international trade organization (hereinafter “ITO”), were based on the view held in both the United States and the United Kingdom, who took the lead in the negotiations, that trade liberalization was essential to avoid the protectionism of the inter-War years which had been harmful to most economies. The United States was interested in seeing the end of British imperial preferences and the United Kingdom was interested in the lowering of the high United States tariffs.