About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

14 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 335 (1993-1994)
Reflections on the International Trade Organization

handle is hein.journals/niulr14 and id is 349 raw text is: Reflections on the International Trade Organization WILLIAM DIEBOLD* This article will attempt to give informal and sketchy answers to the three following questions: 1. What made the International Trade Organization (ITO) different from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), or anything else, before or since? 2. Is there anything new to say about why it failed? 3. Where might we be in international trade policy if we had the ITO? I. THE QUIDDITY Before we single out the differences between the ITO and GATT, we should recall what they had in common. Both came out of the process carried on during and right after the Second World War of constructing a multilateral, liberal, open, world economy. As others have already said, it was common at the time to speak of the ITO as the third leg of the Bretton Woods stool. We thought we could demonstrate that the whole financial and monetary mechanism already agreed to at Bretton Woods wouldn't work if we did not have an arrangement for trade of the sort that would have been provided by the ITO and the Havana Charter of 1947-or something very like it. Obviously, we were wrong. GATT and the ITO were alike in reflecting the view of those who had studied the interwar experience that international agreements concerning trade should embody concrete, workable, commitments. There should be no repetition of the League of Nations experience of trade conferences that produced fine statements of principle that were not adhered to. At the same time, principles were important-very important. Both GATT and the ITO embodied the same principles: multilater- alism; reciprocity; equal treatment; provisions for negotiations to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers; and the creation of intergov- * Senior Fellow Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations. This article is a revised manuscript of a speech given on October 1, 1993 at the International Trade Conference at the Northern Illinois University College of Law in DeKalb, Illinois.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most