The signing came on October 30, 1947, in Geneva, where delegates from twenty-three states put their names to a deal to cut tariffs and drop the trade walls that had deepened the last depression. The war had shown the cost of closed markets, and the talks aimed to keep them open. The aim was clear. The talks ran for months in the hall.
The roots were bleak. The 1930s had seen nations raise barriers to shield jobs, and the trade collapsed along with the banks, so the new pact bound countries to talk before they taxed and to treat each other as equals at the border, which kept the peace of commerce for a generation. The rule was simple. Tariffs fell by a set share each round.
The body grew by rounds. Over the years the signers met again and again to lower duties on goods from wheat to cars, and the GATT became the stage where the rich and poor haggled over access to each other's shelves. The deals were hard. Farm goods stayed a fight for years.
The pact ran until 1995, when it became the World Trade Organization with the power to settle fights by rule. The GATT had cut tariffs across the world and tied economies together. The market it built is still with us. Tariffs are low because of it. The talks never stopped. The rounds drew in more states.