Retailing and Merchandising in Textiles and Appare 3(2+1)
Lesson 12 : Appraisal of Textile Industry
The World Trade Organization (Wto)
In 1947, the United States and other major trading nations entered into a new agreement to reduce trade barriers that countries were erecting against products from other nations. This trade pact, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, was known as GATT and administered by the GATT Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. By its active participation in GATT, the United States publicly supported a free trade philosophy of not placing restrictions on trade (Dickerson, 1995). In reality, however, a free trade position for textile and apparel trade did not result, as we shall consider in a section that follows.
In 1995, the members of GATT made significant changes in its agreement that oversees world trade. The GATT was replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO); the headquarters of the WTO remain in Geneva. Under GATT and now the WTO, a number of basic rules for international trade exist. However, a special and unique agreement has existed for the textile and clothing trade. As part changes for GATT/WTO, this agreement for textiles and apparel is changing too.
Participants