Trade Talks Episode 9: Happy 70th GATTiversary—The Origins of Multilateral Trade

On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of The Economist focus on the origins of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT. They speak with the authors of "The Genesis of the GATT" (Cambridge University Press)—Professors Douglas Irwin, Petros Mavroidis, and Alan Sykes—about the gripping lead-up to the signing of the transformative trade agreement on October 30, 1947. The American Smoot-Hawley tariffs, British Imperial Preferences, World War II, Lend-Lease Act, John Maynard Keynes, James Meade, the Lacock Scholars, and many others all show up to ultimately shape the deal that governed the multilateral system over the next 70 years.