The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed in 1947.
Representatives of 23 economies signed the GATT in Geneva on 30 October 1947. The agreement entered into force on 1 January 1948 and provided a framework for reducing tariffs and addressing other barriers to international merchandise trade.
GATT was originally intended to operate alongside a proposed International Trade Organization, but that organization was never created. As a result, GATT became the main multilateral framework for trade in goods for nearly five decades.
The World Trade Organization replaced GATT as an organization on 1 January 1995. However, GATT 1994 remains one of the agreements administered by the WTO. This distinction matters: GATT 1947 refers to the original legal instrument and its associated arrangements, while GATT 1994 is incorporated into the WTO system.