WTO and GATT History
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1947) was the foundation of the post-war trading system. Eight rounds of negotiations between 1947 and 1994 progressively cut tariffs and expanded coverage. The World Trade Organization (1995) added dispute settlement teeth. The Doha Round (2001 – stalled 2008) was the system's failure to extend. The Appellate Body crisis (since 2019) has hollowed out enforcement.
Key insights
GATT was meant to be temporary
The 1947 GATT was an interim agreement pending creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO). The ITO died when the US Senate refused to ratify the Havana Charter in 1950. The 'temporary' GATT remained in force for 48 years, gradually expanding via successive negotiating rounds and becoming the de facto centerpiece of the post-war trading system.
Membership doubled, then doubled again
GATT had 23 founding contracting parties in 1947. Membership reached 50 by 1965, 90 by 1985, 128 when WTO replaced GATT in 1995. WTO now has 166 members — China (2001) and Russia (2012) the largest additions of the modern era. About 25 economies remain outside, mostly small or politically constrained states (Iran has observer status since 1996 but has not joined).
The Appellate Body crisis matters
The WTO's dispute settlement system was its biggest improvement over GATT — binding rulings, binding enforcement. The US (under both administrations since 2017) has blocked Appellate Body appointments, citing concerns about judicial activism. The body lost quorum in December 2019 and remains non-functional. The MPIA workaround covers ~30 members but the broader enforcement teeth are gone.
Average industrial tariff in industrial countries 1947–today
Trade-weighted average bound MFN tariff on manufactures, %
Key Finding: Eight successive rounds cut industrial-country tariffs from ~22% to under 4%.
GATT/WTO membership 1948–2024
Number of contracting parties / members
Key Finding: Three growth phases: 1948-65 OECD core; 1965-95 developing-country expansion; post-2001 China/Russia inflection.
Methodology & caveats
MFN, national treatment, non-discrimination
The two pillars of the GATT/WTO system: Most-Favoured-Nation treatment (any tariff concession to one member extends to all members) and National Treatment (imported goods get the same domestic treatment as locally produced goods). These principles allow tariff cuts to be negotiated bilaterally but applied multilaterally — the engine of post-war tariff liberalization.
Why the Doha Round failed
The Doha Development Round launched 2001 to extend trade rules to agriculture, services, IP and investment. It stalled around 2008 over agricultural subsidies (US and EU farm support vs developing-country demands). The 2013 Bali Package on trade facilitation was a small partial harvest. The Round was never formally closed; it remains in suspended animation. The WTO has shifted to plurilateral agreements (e-commerce, investment facilitation) negotiated by subsets of members.
Plurilateralism is the current frontier
With the Doha Round stalled and the Appellate Body broken, action has moved to plurilateral negotiations (a subset of members) and regional trade agreements (RCEP, CPTPP, USMCA, AfCFTA). The WTO's role has narrowed from rule-making to dispute facilitation. Whether it can be restored to broader rule-making depends largely on US-China geopolitical dynamics.