The foundations of the international trade regime date back to 1947 when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was concluded. This Agreement, salvaged from an unratified larger agreement called the International Trade Organization, was one piece of the so-called Bretton-Woods system, designed in the post-World War II environment to promote and manage global economic development. (The International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development—the World Bank—were the other two main pieces.) GATT established the two basic directions for the trade regime:

• Developing requirements to lower and eliminate tariffs, and
• Creating obligations to prevent or eliminate other types of impediments or barriers to trade (non-tariff barriers).

From 1948 to 1994, eight negotiating "Rounds" took place under the auspices of GATT to further develop the trade regime along both these lines. Early rounds focused more on tariffs alone, but non-tariff barriers have since come to the fore.

The last of these negotiations, the "Uruguay Round," concluded in 1994. The Marrakech Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization marked the end of the Round. It also created the World Trade Organization. In this section, the basic elements of the WTO and its law are identified. These include the most important components, functions, principles and agreements that provide the foundation for today's modern trade regime.

3.1 Structure of the World Trade Organization