The correct answer is a, b and c. • General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) • The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), signed on October 30, 1947, by 23 countries, was a legal agreement minimizing barriers to international trade by eliminating or reducing quotas, tariffs, and subsidies while preserving significant regulations. Hence, statement b is correct. • The GATT was intended to boost economic recovery after World War II through reconstructing and liberalizing global trade. • The GATT went into effect on January 1, 1948. Hence, statement a is correct. • Since that beginning it has been refined, eventually leading to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 1995, which absorbed and extended it. Hence, statement c is correct. • The agreement also provided a system to arbitrate commercial disputes among nations, and the framework enabled a number of multilateral negotiations for the reduction of tariff barriers. Not all bilateral and multilateral trade agreements but only agreements between member countries. Hence, statement d is not correct. • What is the WTO? • It is an international organization whose primary purpose is to open trade for the benefit of all. • It is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. • At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. • It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. • It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. • It operates a system of trade rules. • Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other.