GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) originated with a meeting of 22 nations meeting in 1947 in Geneva, Switzerland. By
2000, there were 142 member nations, with
another 30 countries seeking admission. The
detailed commitments by each country to limit
tariffs on particular items by the amount nego-
tiated and specified in its tariff schedule is the
central core of the GATT system of international
obligation.
The obligations relating to the tariff sched-
ules are contained in Article II of GATT. For each
commodity listed on the schedule of a country,
that country agrees to charge a tariff that will not
exceed an amount specified in the schedule. It
can, if it wishes, charge a lower tariff.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) heav-
ily influences the workings of the GATT treaties
through the efforts of various committees. Rep-
resentatives of member countries of the WTO
comprise the Council for the Trade in Goods
(Goods Council), which oversees the work of 11
committees responsible for overseeing the vari-
ous sectors of GATT. The committees focus on
such issues as agriculture, sanitary measures,
