| The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade | | | | grounds that the ITO would be given too much |
| (GATT) is the second of three regimes governing | | | | jurisdiction over internal American matters. At the |
| international trade in the modern era. It has been | | | | end of 1950, President Truman announced that he |
| succeeded by the World Trade Organization (WTO), | | | | would stop seeking ratification of the ITO charter, |
| and coexisted with the abortive International Trade | | | | and without American involvement, the organization |
| Organization (ITO). The International Trade | | | | withered on the vine. GATT, in the meantime, had |
| Organization was intended to be a counterpart to the | | | | successfully been implemented but had been intended |
| International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, | | | | to supplement, rather than replace, the ITO. While |
| institutions negotiated at the Bretton Woods | | | | the ITO, and the WTO that now reigns, was an |
| Conference in 1944. Named for Bretton Woods, New | | | | organization, GATT was only a treaty, with no |
| Hampshire, site of the Mount Washington Hotel | | | | infrastructure, staff, or institutional existence. |
| where negotiations took place, the | | | | Negotiations over the GATT began in parallel and in |
| conference-formally called the United Nations | | | | cooperation with the ITO negotiations, and were |
| Monetary and Financial Conference, but rarely | | | | originally intended to be a short-term treaty binding |
| recognized by that name anymore-was attended by | | | | countries to some easily agreed-upon terms until the |
| 730 delegates of the 44 Allied nations, already | | | | ITO began operations. Twenty-three countries signed |
| planning for the shape the world would take when | | | | the original treaty, which in the United States was |
| World War II ended. | | | | considered a congressional-executive agreement, an |
| The foundational idea of Bretton Woods was the | | | | exercise of the president's power to negotiate trade |
| encouraging of open markets and the lowering of | | | | agreements when granted such authority by |
| barriers to trade, among member nations. In 1946 the | | | | Congress. In essence, it granted "most favored |
| United Nations Economic and Social Committee called | | | | nation" status upon all nations signing the treaty. A |
| for a conference to charter the International Trade | | | | staggering total of 45,000 tariff concessions were |
| Organization. Though agreed upon fairly quickly, ITO | | | | made by the first signing of GATT, affecting half of |
| never got off the ground; every attempt to have | | | | the world's trade-an enormous initiative, despite the |
| the United States Congress approve it failed, on the | | | | failure of the ITO three years later. |