Dictionary of Marketing Terms: GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
institutional framework signed in 1948 by 23 nations, including the United States, for the purposes of fostering multilateral trade agreements among members. A basic tenent of GATT is the most-favored nation principle, which allows every nation within the framework the best contract terms received by any single nation within the framework. GATT provides a set of rules and principles that are committed to the liberalization of trade between member nations, and the member nations meet every two years to negotiate new tariff agreements. As of 1991, 108 nations were participating in GATT, representing over 80% of the total volume of international trade.
