Harry Dexter White (l) and John Maynard Keynes at the Bretton Woods Conference — Both economists had been strong advocates of a liberal international trade environment, and recommended the establishment of three institutions: the IMF (fiscal and monetary issues), the World Bank (financial and structural issues), and the ITO (international economic cooperation).
The WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international economic cooperation — notably the Bretton Woods institutions known as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A comparable international institution for trade, named the International Trade Organization was successfully negotiated. The ITO was to be a United Nations specialized agency and would address not only trade barriers but other issues indirectly related to trade, including employment, investment, restrictive business practices, and commodity agreements. But the ITO treaty was not approved by the U.S. and a few other signatories and never went into effect.
In the absence of an international organization for trade, the GATT would over the years "transform itself" into a de facto international organization.
2 comments:
it's gud but wat is the benefit of posting old historical bookish knowledge.I mean everyone can find this in the book or on a no. of websites.Blogs r for personal openion or discussions.
wat is your openion about the WTO???Is is really a successful organization which is effectively working for its gols & objectives as determined at the time of its foundation.What do u say about the failed conferences of WTO at DOHA,Hong-Kong, and Singapore???
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