Peter Sutherland, a globetrotting Irishman who pulled off one of the biggest multilateral trade agreements, wielding an auctioneer’s gavel to secure the “Uruguay Round” in 1994, has died. He was 71.

In his role as head of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), Sutherland persuaded 123 countries to agree new rules on agriculture and textiles, as well as services, intellectual property and a mechanism for resolving trade disputes. Mickey Kantor, then-US trade representative, dubbed the Irishman the father of globalisation long before the term acquired its current negative connotation.

Sutherland’s family said in a statement that he died in hospital in Dublin on Sunday. He had been ill for some time. Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister, paid tribute to Sutherland, saying he was “a statesman in every sense of the word; an Irishman, a committed European and a proud internationalist.” “Throughout his life, he was a champion for individual and economic freedoms,” Mr Varadkar said.