Trade Negotiations

Attempts were first made in the 1930s to coordinate international trade policy. At first countries negotiated bilateral treaties. Later, following World War II, international organizations were established to promote trade by, for example, liberalizing tariff and nontariff trade barriers.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT, signed by 23 non-Communist nations in 1947, was the first such agreement designed to remove or loosen barriers to free trade. GATT members held a number of specially organized rounds of negotiations that significantly reduced tariffs and other restrictions on world trade.

After the round of negotiations that ended in 1994, the member nations of GATT signed an agreement that provided for establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO began operation in January 1995 and coexisted with GATT until December 1995, after which GATT ceased to exist.

All of the 128 contracting parties to the 1994 GATT agreement eventually transferred membership to the WTO. See also Commercial Treaties.