General agreement on tariffs and trade GATT

WTO is a successor global trade organization to the GATT which came into being on 1 January 1948 as a result of an agreement among 23 proponent Countries to have a multilateral trade regulating organization in place of an International Trading Organization (lTO)WhIh all of them voted for, but not be set up because the American Senate voted against it. The objective of the GAT 1. Was to ensure a “Substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a ‘reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis”. GATT was governed by the Following principles: (I) Non-discrimination implying that no member of GATT can discriminate against other nations or show favouritism or give any special privilege to any nation; (ii) Tariff Protection implying that GAIT favoured the use of tariffs as an ideal means of protecting domestic industries, rather than using nontariff measures such as import quotas and (iii) Stable basis of trade so as to avoid volatility in global trade. The GATT carried out its functions between 1947 and 1994 over eight rounds of negotiations addressing various trade issues. These rounds of negotiations can be divided into three distinct phases. During the first phase, from 1947 to until the Torque Round GATT was concerned largely on the commodities that would be coveted by the agreement and freezing existing tariff levels. The second phase covering three rounds, between I 959 and 1979 focused on reducing tariffs. The third phase consisting only of the prolonged Uruguay Round between 1986 and 1994 extended the agreements fully to new areas such as intellectual property, services, investment measures, and agriculture. The WTO was born of this round. The functions of the GATT were taken over by the WTO which was established during the final round of negotiations in early 1995•