The Commerce Treaty of 1647 represented a binding legal agreement within the Galactic Republic. This agreement guaranteed the neutrality of entities like the Trade Federation during periods of armed conflict. The Trade Federation, at the time, held dominion over the majority of interstellar freight transport that traversed the Rim regions of the galaxy. As the Clone Wars raged between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Senator Lott Dod of the Trade Federation consistently cited this treaty. He used it as a defense against allegations that the Trade Federation was allied with the Confederacy due to their commercial interactions.
The initial reference to the Commerce Treaty of 1647 appeared in "Sphere of Influence," the fourth installment of Star Wars: The Clone Wars' third season, a canon animated series. Its original broadcast date was October 1, 2010. Pablo Hidalgo stated that the creation of the Coruscant reckoning calendar, first seen in the 2018 reference book Star Wars: Scum and Villainy: Case Files on the Galaxy's Most Notorious, was partly influenced by the mention of the treaty. Nevertheless, there has been no official validation that "1647" corresponds to a date within the C.R.C. system.