The establishment of the GATT Standards Code
From 1948 to 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided the rules for much of world trade and presided over periods that saw some of the highest growth rates in international commerce.
In the early years, the GATT trade rounds concentrated on reducing tariffs. Then, the Kennedy Round in the mid-60s brought about a GATT Anti-Dumping Agreement and a section on development. The Tokyo Round during the 70s was the first major attempt to tackle trade barriers that do not take the form of tariffs, and to improve the system. The eighth, the Uruguay Round of 1986-94, was the last and most extensive of all. It led to the WTO (World Trade Organization) and a new set of agreements.
The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the so-called GATT Standards Code) introduced in 1979 aims at ensuring that regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. The Agreement also sets out a code of good practice for both governments and non-governmental or industry bodies to prepare, adopt and apply voluntary standards.
ISO grasped immediately the importance of the GATT Standards Code and actively promoted the value of ISO’s International Standards to be used worldwide as instruments facilitating the elimination of unnecessary barriers to trade, and, whenever needed, as a suitable basis for technical regulations.
The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (now WTO TBT) was eventually amended in the Uruguay Round and turned into a multilateral commitment accepted by all WTO members.
Since 1979, ISO has taken the commitment and implemented all the necessary measures to ensure that ISO’s International Standards are fully compliant with the requirements set by the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade of the WTO.
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