General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Das allgemeine Zoll- und Handelsabkommen (GATT) – im Englischen unter „General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade“ bekannt, trat am 1.1.1948 in Kraft. Ziel des Abkommens war, Zölle und Trade barriers zwischen den Staaten nach und nach abzubauen und so die Weltwirtschaft zu liberalisieren.

Durch den verstärkten weltweiten Warenaustausch sollen Produktion und Beschäftigungsgrad in den einzelnen Ländern erhöht und damit das Real income und der Lebensstandard in der Bevölkerung verbessert werden. Folgende Grundsätze standen bei den Verhandlungsrunden im Vordergrund: Abbau der Zölle, Abbau von mengenmäßigen Hanndelsbeschränkungen, Gewährung der allgemeinen Meistbegünstigung, das heißt, dass jede Vertragspartei in den Genuss des günstigsten Zollsatzes sowie aller anderen vergünstigten Abgaben und Belastungen bei Ein- und Ausfuhr kommt, die eine Vertragspartei irgendeinem anderen Land einräumt.

In addition, in the event of trade disputes between contracting states, a structured process of conflict resolution is set in motion. In the event of disagreements, the contracting parties must first try to negotiate to resolve trade problems independently. If this does not succeed, the relevant GATT technical committee is charged with attempting to arbitrate. If the conflict cannot be resolved here either, the technical committee sets up a special working group for the special case. If the conflict resolution fails, this GATT special unit can allow retaliation: for example, punitive tariffs for the country that is not ready to solve the trade problem.

Another content of the GATT agreement is trade facilitation for developing countries. This includes a customs decree for imports into industrialized countries. To strengthen developing countries, trade facilitation is one-sided. Industrialized countries do not get any tariff relief. In exceptional cases, developing countries should also be allowed to take measures to promote trade in their own goods. This is intended to give priority to the sale of national goods.

There were eight rounds of negotiations to remove barriers to global trade. The last, called the Uruguay Round, was completed in 1993. With the entry into force of the Uruguay Round agreements, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was set up. As an organization, the WTO is supposed to settle conflicts (institutionalized settlement) and thus strengthen trust in the multilateral (multilateral) trade agreements. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is one of the most important agreements within the WTO. The WTO currently has 153 member states. The Federal Republic of Germany has been part of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since October 1, 1951 and the WTO since the beginning (January 1, 1995).