Why the International Trade Organization?
Abstract
Why the International Trade Organization? SAGE Publications, Inc.1949DOI: 10.1177/000271624926400112 Clair Wilcox Swarthmore College T HE Havana Charter for the International Trade Organization does two things. It lays down a detailed code of rules to govern trade relationships, and it sets up another specialized agency of the United Nations to serve as an instrument of continuous international accommodation. ANALYSIS OF COMMITMENTS The substantive commitments contained in the Charter may be divided into two groups. In the first group are those that relate to issues of national commercial policy that have previously been covered in international agreements. In the second are those that mark the first attempt to deal with some of the major problems now affecting world trade. The first group contains commitments relating to tariffs, preferences, discriminatory internal taxes and regulations, methods of customs administration, import and export quota systems, and other devices for restricting trade. These commitments limit the freedom of nations to employ measures other than tariffs for the protection of domestic industries, and they require the members of the ITO to enter into negotiations directed toward the substantial reduction of tariffs and the elimination of preferences. Such negotiations, concluded among twenty-three nations at Geneva in