70th Anniversary of the GATT

Abstract

30 October 1947 marks the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of the negotiations for a “General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade” which became the cornerstone of the multilateral trading system and “provisionally” governed international trade for almost 50 years.Considered the largest trade negotiation of its time, the negotiations were concluded in little over six months thanks to a series of innovative approaches, bold decisions, and a colossal effort by those involved.Surprisingly, not much has been written on the manner in which these negotiations took place, the political events that shaped them, nor the personalities involved, all of which have remained largely ignored by the specialised text books. Based on primary sources and prior work of historians, this paper describes the overall political environment and major political events that shaped the negotiations, as well as the hard political decisions that had to be taken in order to close the deal. Emphasis is placed on the clash between the United States and the United Kingdom concerning the elimination of British Imperial Preferences. The paper also describes the legal and practical hurdles that negotiators had to overcome in order to provisionally apply the GATT, including determining the type of legal instrument that would be used and who could sign it.