The establishment and the eventual phase-out of the Multi-Fiber Arrangements (MFAs) have the potential to offer lessons about managed trade. While many factors have influenced the market outcomes in textiles and clothing (T&C), this paper attempts to distill key elements that can form the foundation of a better understanding of changes in managed trade systems for the future. Filtering past history can be difficult because of the myriad of confounding causal factors that result in observed behavior. Nevertheless, a retrospective can be useful because it passes observations through a prism that can delineate some root causes and consequences. This paper proceeds as follows. First, a brief history of textile and clothing MFAs is presented. Next, some of the unintended consequences of textile trade policy are discussed. Third, the pre-MFA phase-out estimates of impacts and compare those with actual outcomes are summarized. Fourth, an overview of the MFA phase-out and some of the policy responses in the wake (or in conjunction with) the phase-out is provided. Finally, we offer some lessons learned from the MFA removal process and some questions for the future.