For goods and services alike, international trade grew dramatically in the second half of the 20th century. By the year 2000, total world trade was 22 times greater than it had been in 1950.

This increase in multilateral international trade occurred at the same time that trade barriers, especially tariffs, were reduced or in some cases eliminated across the globe. A major impetus to the global growth of trade was the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a series of trade agreements adopted in 1948. The system created under GATT encouraged a series of trade negotiations focused on tariff reductions. The early trade agreements were largely directed toward tangible goods such as agricultural products, processed foods, steel, and automobiles. A round of negotiations known as the Uruguay Round (1986–94) finally led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.

Advances in information technology since the 1990s have altered the focus of many trade agreements. In 1997 the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and Basic Telecommunications Agreement (BTA) reduced the tariffs on computer and telecommunications products and some intangible goods considered to be drivers of the developing knowledge-based economy. The rapid growth of the Internet and electronic commerce (e-commerce) represented some of the most challenging new issues in the international trade arena, in part because many countries were slow to adopt bilateral free-trade agreements that included provisions covering e-commerce.

The ITA and the BTA represented a dramatic departure from earlier national economic policies, especially in cases where countries used prohibitively high tariffs and subsidies to protect their technology industries from foreign competitors. Free-trade advocates and the WTO have held that WTO-sponsored agreements offer the best means of providing lower prices for consumers across a wide array of products while creating fairer competitive conditions for international suppliers.

The work of the WTO came under increasing scrutiny from its critics, especially after 1999, when trade talks were disrupted by globalization protesters during the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle, Washington. These critics voiced a number of concerns about the power and scope of the WTO, with the gravest criticisms clustering around issues such as environmental impact, health and safety, the rights of domestic workers, the democratic nature of the WTO, and the long-term wisdom of endorsing commercialism and free trade to the neglect of other values. (See globalization.)

There is no question, however, that tariff reduction creates many economic benefits. Proponents of the WTO have emphasized its positive results by pointing to reductions in the cost of living, increases in income, and improvements in efficiency. Although these advocates recognize the controversial nature of the organization’s rules and principles, which call for lower tariffs among member nations, they insist nonetheless that the WTO provides a democratic forum for resolving conflicts in an open, reasonably fair, and transparent manner.

Trade taxes are studied in Joseph F. Kenkel, Progressives and Protection: The Search for a Tariff Policy, 1866–1936 (1983), a historical survey; Edmond McGovern, International Trade Regulation: GATT, the United States, and the European Community, 2nd ed. (1986), provides context on the years prior to the formation of the WTO; Gary Burtless et al., Globaphobia: Confronting Fears About Open Trade (1998), is an accessible discussion of the effects of trade agreements; and Kevin H. O’Rourke and Jeffrey G. Williamson, Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy (1999, reprinted 2001), emphasizes the effects of free trade in the 19th century.