Editing World Trade Organization (section)

===Uruguay Round: 1986–1994===
{{Main|Uruguay Round}}

Well before GATT's 40th anniversary (due in 1987–1988), GATT members concluded that the GATT system was straining to adapt to a [[Globalization|globalizing]] [[world economy]].<ref name="G4">P. Gallagher, ''The First Ten Years of the WTO'', 4</ref><ref name="UR">[http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact5_e.htm "The Uruguay Round"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070320103620/http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact5_e.htm |date=20 March 2007 }}. World Trade Organization.</ref> In response to problems identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration (structural deficiencies, spill-over impacts of certain countries' policies on world trade which GATT could not manage, etc.), a meeting in [[Punta del Este]], [[Uruguay]], launched the eighth GATT round—known as the "[[Uruguay Round]]"—in September 1986.<ref>{{cite book
 |publisher    = General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
 |year         = 1994
 |title        = Press Communiqué, Issues 1604–1664
 |url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=a20qAQAAMAAJ
 |page         = 22
 |access-date  = 16 March 2023
 |quote        = ...&nbsp;the GATT has just completed its eighth—and by far the most ambitious—round of negotiations, the Uruguay Round, launched in September 1986 in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
 |archive-date = 16 March 2023
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20230316035154/https://books.google.com/books?id=a20qAQAAMAAJ
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 |last1             = Gallagher
 |first1            = Peter
 |series            = Collected courses of the Academy of European Law
 |date              = 15 December 2005
 |chapter           = Looking back, looking forward
 |title             = The First Ten Years of the WTO: 1995–2005
 |url               = https://books.google.com/books?id=QwM7dDO22-MC
 |publication-place = Cambridge
 |publisher         = Cambridge University Press
 |page              = 133
 |isbn              = 9780521862158
 |access-date       = 16 March 2023
 |quote             = The Uruguay Round had a four-year time frame when it was launched in 1986&nbsp;...
 |archive-date      = 14 February 2024
 |archive-url       = https://web.archive.org/web/20240214033012/https://books.google.com/books?id=QwM7dDO22-MC
 |url-status        = live
}}</ref>

In the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed, the Uruguay Round talks aimed to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles; all the original GATT articles were up for review.<ref name="UR"/> The Final Act concluding the [[Uruguay]] Round and officially establishing the WTO regime was signed on 15 April 1994, during the ministerial meeting at [[Marrakesh]], [[Morocco]]—hence known as the [[Marrakesh Agreement]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/04-wto_e.htm|title= Legal texts – Marrakesh agreement |publisher= World Trade Organization|access-date= 30 May 2010|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100525093037/http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/04-wto_e.htm |archive-date= 25 May 2010|url-status= live}}</ref>

The GATT still exists as the WTO's umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations (a distinction is made between ''GATT 1994'', the updated parts of GATT, and ''GATT 1947'', the original agreement which is still the heart of GATT 1994).<ref name="G4" /> GATT 1994 is not, however, the only legally binding agreement included via the Final Act at Marrakesh; a long list of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions, and understandings was adopted. The agreements fall into six main parts:
* the Agreement Establishing the WTO
* the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods, including the GATT 1994 and the [[Trade Related Investment Measures]] (TRIMS)
* the [[General Agreement on Trade in Services]] (GATS)
* the [[Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights]] (TRIPS)
* dispute settlement<ref>{{Cite journal |url= http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/scujil/vol2/iss1/2/|title= Resolving Trade Disputes, the Mechanisms of GATT/WTO Dispute Resolution |issue= 1|pages= 40 |journal= Santa Clara Journal of International Law |volume= 2 |access-date= 3 April 2016 |date= January 2004|last1= Erskine|first1= Daniel|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160416222738/http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/scujil/vol2/iss1/2/ |archive-date= 16 April 2016|url-status= live}}</ref>
* reviews of governments' trade policies<ref name="OL">[http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/agrm1_e.htm "Overview: a Navigational Guide"]. {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070315073728/http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/agrm1_e.htm |date= 15 March 2007 }}. World Trade Organization.

For the complete list of "The Uruguay Round Agreements", see:
* [http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm "WTO legal texts"]. {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20051214090600/http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm |date= 14 December 2005 }}. World Trade Organization.
* [http://www.worldtradelaw.net/uragreements/ "Uruguay Round Agreements, Understandings, Decisions and Declarations"]. {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223022/http://www.worldtradelaw.net/uragreements/ |date=27 September 2007 }}. ''WorldTradeLaw.net''.
</ref>

In terms of the WTO's [[#Principles of the trading system|principle relating to tariff "ceiling-binding" (No. 3)]], the Uruguay Round has been successful in increasing binding commitments by both developed and developing countries, as may be seen in the percentages of tariffs bound before and after the 1986–1994 talks.<ref name="PT"/>