The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade<\/a> (GATT) was a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. It was signed by 23 nations in Geneva<\/a> on October 30, 1947, and became law on January 1, 1948. The agreement was the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment<\/a> and was designed to provide a framework for Multilateralism<\/a> in the post-WWII economic order.<\/p> GATT functioned through a series of trade negotiations, or rounds, where member nations discussed and agreed upon tariff reductions. Notable sessions included the Kennedy Round<\/a>, the Tokyo Round<\/a>, and finally the Uruguay Round<\/a>, which lasted from 1986 to 1994. A primary principle of the agreement was the Most-Favored-Nation<\/a> (MFN) status, which ensured that trade concessions granted to one member were extended to all. This promoted Trade Liberalization<\/a> and sought to prevent the Protectionism<\/a> that had exacerbated the Great Depression.<\/p> In 1995, the GATT was succeeded by the World Trade Organization<\/a> (WTO), which integrated the original GATT text (now known as GATT 1947) into its own framework (GATT 1994). While GATT focused primarily on trade in goods, the WTO expanded its mandate to include services and intellectual property. Detailed historical documentation of the agreement can be found via the Official WTO GATT 1947 Archives<\/a> and further analysis is provided by Encyclopedia Britannica<\/a>.<\/p>