General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, usually shortened to GATT and cited as GATT 1947 to tell it apart from the later GATT 1994, is the multilateral trade treaty whose complete text, with the amendments that took effect after its entry into force, the World Trade Organization publishes online. Its preamble is made in the name of many governments, beginning with the Commonwealth of Australia and the Kingdom of Belgium. The treaty sets general rules for trade in goods, among them most-favoured-nation treatment in Article I, schedules of concessions in Article II, national treatment on internal taxation and regulation in Article III, anti-dumping and countervailing duties in Article VI, the elimination of quantitative restrictions in Article XI, and general and security exceptions in Articles XX and XXI. It also provides for customs unions and free-trade areas in Article XXIV, for consultation and for nullification or impairment in Articles XXII and XXIII, and for amendment, withdrawal and accession in Articles XXX to XXXIII. Article XXIX relates it to the Havana Charter, and Articles XXXVI to XXXVIII add principles, commitments and joint action.