General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) / World Trade Organization (WTO)

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The GATT is one third of the Bretton Woods system that was created after World War II to ensure a stable trade and economic world environment. The IMF and the World Bank are the other two bodies created by the Bretton Woods system. The GATT has completed 8 rounds of multilateral trade negotiations (including the Uruguay Round). The GATT is a multilateral agreement and the text can be located at 55 UNTS 194, TIAS 1700. The Final Act from the Uruguay Round was concluded on December 15, 1993 and produced the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement and its annexes. The text is located at 1867 UNTS 14. The Annexes, which contain the WTO agreement, GATS, TRIPS, etc. are in the subsequent UNTS volumes 1868 and 1869). GATT 1947 and GATT 1994 are two distinct agreements. GATT 1994 incorporates the GATT 1947 provisions (except for the Protocol on Provisional Application).

Sources for the text of GATT and WTO Agreements

• Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round (Washington, D.C.; G.P.O., 1993) [Loan Desk KJ689.A12 U781 1993].
• [GATT] Basic Instruments and Selected Documents (BISD) (Geneva: GATT, 1953-) [KJ689.C764 B37]. Also available on Lexis.
• 1867 UNTS 3 [North Reading Room KJ179.U58 TS].
• Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: The Legal Texts (Geneva: WTO, 1994) [KJ689 .R48].
• 33 International Legal Materials 1 (1994) [KJ5 .I574].
• WTO Legal Texts (WTO Web site).
• WTO Agreements (Trade Compliance Center, U.S. Dept. of Commerce).
• Uruguay Round Agreements, Understandings, Decisions and Declarations (Worldtradelaw.net).
• LEXIS (ITRADE; GATT). If you are using the web version, select "International Trade" from the Source Directory.
• Westlaw (IEL database).

Implementing Legislation

Uruguay Round Agreements Act , Pub. L. 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809 (1994), 19 USC 3501. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see "Short Title" note in the code.

GATT/WTO Documents

Most GATT documents from 1947-1996 are only available in microfiche. From 1995 to present, the publicly available WTO documents are available at the WTO Web site. There is a project underway to make some of the GATT documents available on the Web, see GATT Digitial Archive 1947-1994.

For more detailed information on researching GATT/WTO documents, see WTO/GATT Research.

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Prepared by Marci Hoffman, International and Foreign Law Librarian, UC Berkeley Law Library, January 2004.