At the conclusion of World War II, twenty-three countries, led primarily by
the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, negotiated the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.1 The goal was to create an agreement that
would ensure postwar stability and avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the recent
past, including the Smoot-Hawley tariffs and retaliatory responses, which had
been a contributor to the devastating economic climate that culminated in the
death and destruction of the Second World War. The 1947 GATT created a
new basic template of rules and exceptions to regulate international trade
between members (referred to as contracting parties) and locked in initial tariff