What is the Full Form of GATT?

In international economics, the full form of GATT is the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

• Signed in 1947: GATT was a massive legal agreement signed by 23 countries right after WWII.
• The Main Goal: Its absolute primary objective was to reduce Tariffs (heavy import taxes) and remove international trade barriers (Quotas).
• How it worked: Before GATT, if India tried to sell cotton to America, America would put a 50% tax on it, making it too expensive to sell. GATT forced all countries to sit at a table, shake hands, and agree to drastically lower these taxes. This allowed goods to flow freely across borders, boosting the global economy and reducing poverty.

While GATT was highly successful in reducing taxes on physical goods (like cars and clothes), it had a major flaw. It was just a 'paper agreement', not an actual organization. It had no real legal power to punish a country if it broke the rules, and it did not cover modern trade like software services or intellectual property (patents).

Because of these weaknesses, GATT was officially retired and completely replaced on January 1, 1995, by a much more powerful, permanent global institution: The World Trade Organization (WTO).