World Trade Organisation

INTRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT OF IT0:
In 1944 in order to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, commonly known as Bretton Woods conference, was at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire   where 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations   gathered . at this conference agreements were signed to set up the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Conference also proposed the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO) to establish rules and regulations for international trade. The ITO would have complemented the other two Bretton Woods proposed international bodies: the IMF and the World Bank, Probably because Bretton Woods was attended only by representatives of finance ministries and not by representatives of trade ministries, an agreement covering trade was not negotiated there.
RESISTANCE OF ITO IMPLEMENTATION BY US AND RISE OF GATT:
In early 1945, the United States invited its war-time allies to enter into negotiations to conclude a multilateral agreement for the reciprocal reduction of tariffs on trade in goods. In July 1945 the United States Congress had granted President Harry S. Truman the authority to negotiate and conclude such an agreement. At the proposal of the United States, the United Nations Economic and Social Committee adopted a resolution, in February 1946, calling for a conference to draft a charter for an International Trade Organization (ITO). A Preparatory Committee was established in February 1946, and met for the first time in London in October 1946 to work on the charter of an international organization for trade; the work was continued from April to November 1947.[3]
In March 1948, the negotiations on the ITO Charter were successfully completed in Havana. The Charter provided... [continues]

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