GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) created a post World War II pact that set the rules for non-discriminatory, tariff-based trade among market economies.
Significance
Locked in Most Favored Nation non-discrimination (Article I): any tariff cut for one member extends to all.
Created bound tariff schedules (Article II), making cuts durable and harder to reverse.
Ran multilateral “rounds” that progressively lowered global tariffs.
Established early dispute settlement norms and a rules-based trading system.
Laid the institutional foundation for the World Trade Organization (WTO)
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