General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Treaty organization affiliated with the United Nations whose purpose was to facilitate international trade. The primary actions of the organization were to freeze and reduce tariff levels on various commodities. GATT was created in 1947, and was originally intended to become a part of the International Trade Organization (ITO); however, the ITO failed to be created, so the GATT was left as an independent organization. In 1994, GATT was superseded by the WTO.