An agreement regarding the international slave trade and federal power over commerce occurred during the Constitutional Convention. It stipulated that Congress could not ban the importation of enslaved people until 1808. Further, exports were not to be taxed.
This agreement was a critical component of achieving consensus among the states during the formation of the United States. Southern states, whose economies relied heavily on enslaved labor and agricultural exports, insisted on protections for these interests as a condition of joining the Union. The compromise allowed for the new nation to form, but it simultaneously entrenched slavery as a significant and divisive issue that would eventually lead to civil war.