This publication provides a guide to the interpretation and application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, drawn from official documentary sources of the GATT. The material is arranged in forty-three chapters covering:
- the Preamble of the General Agreement
- its thirty-nine Articles
- Part IV
- provisional application of the General Agreement
- the institutional and decision-making practice of the GATT, plus appendix
Except where otherwise indicated, this edition has been updated to 1 January 1995, the date of entry into force of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. A new section in the chapter on Institutions and Procedure summarizes the decisions taken by the Preparatory Committee for the WTO and the CONTRACTING PARTIES to the GATT regarding the transition from the GATT to the WTO.
Each chapter is structured in four sections: the text of the relevant GATT provisions, the application and interpretation of those provisions, the drafting history, and relevant documents.
- Section I includes the text of the Article concerned, the Interpretative Notes relevant to that Article from Annex I of the General Agreement, the provisions of other Annexes to the General Agreement where appropriate, and the text of relevant Understandings incorporated in GATT 1994.
- Section II includes excerpts from documents bearing on the interpretation of the General Agreement and the Havana Charter, and the practice of the CONTRACTING PARTIES in applying the provisions of the General Agreement in question. The material in Section II is arranged systematically corresponding to the phrase or word of the General Agreement interpreted or other relevant categories. Some chapters also include tables or other descriptive material.
- Section III provides a general account of the relevant preparatory work of the Havana Charter and the General Agreement, and a discussion of any relevant amendments to the General Agreement. Additional material on drafting history also may appear in section II.
- Section IV provides a list of relevant documents from the preparatory work, the early years of the GATT, and the Review Session of 1954-55. The document references for Articles V through X appear at the end of the chapter on Article X. In the case of Part IV of the GATT, which is the sole amendment since the Review Session, a list of relevant negotiating documents appears at the end of the chapter on Part IV.