GATT and the Goods Council
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) covers international trade in goods. The workings of the GATT agreement are the responsibility of the Council for Trade in Goods (Goods Council) which is made up of representatives from all WTO member countries. The current chair is .
The Goods Council has 10 committees dealing with specific subjects (such as agriculture, market access, subsidies, anti-dumping measures and so on). Again, these committees consist of all member countries.
Also reporting to the Goods Council are a working party on state trading enterprises, and the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) Committee.
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Introduction
Information on GATT and the Goods Council links to the GATT and Goods Council section of the WTO guide “Understanding the WTO”.
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Summary of the legal texts of the GATT
Browse or download the text of the “Multilateral Agreement on trade in goods” from the legal texts gateway
Buy the WTO Agreements series: GATT 1994 & 1947 from the Online Bookshop
Find decisions of WTO bodies concerning the GATT agreement in the Analytical Index — Guide to WTO Law and Practice
History of the GATT
Twenty-three countries signed the Final Act of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on 30 October 1947 after a period of intensive negotiations. The lead negotiators had profoundly disagreed on the level of ambition to be achieved by the negotiations but finally overcame their differences.
- Clash of the GATT negotiators
- GATT 1947: How Stalin and the Marshall Plan helped to conclude the negotiations
- GATT 1947 and the grueling task of signing
- 1947 press release announcing the signing of the GATT
- PIIE’s Trade Talks podcast: Happy 70th GATTiversary—The Origins of Multilateral Trade