The end of World War II saw the establishment of several international organizations which aimed to re-establish world cooperation and provide guidance, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Along with them the International Trade Organization was also established. The idea was to have an organization that could intermediate negotiations between governments on issues pertaining to cross-border economics, such as tariffs, taxes and restrictions on the mobility of goods and services. For organizational reasons, the ITO failed to fulfill that much-needed role.
The result of the negotiations that went into creating the ITO was the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (1947). This organization, which lasted until 1994, made important steps towards liberalizing international trade by promoting restrictions in tariffs, subsidies and quantitative trade restrictions.
The World Trade Organization was founded as a result of the GATT discussions and held its first conference in Singapore in 1996. This ministerial conference focused on four topics, namely, government procurement, trade facilitation, trade and investment and finally, trade and competition. These topics were pushed mainly by the developed countries, Japan, Korea and the EU, with soft support from the United States, but were mainly opposed by developing countries.
In case you have any questions about this committee at all, please directly contact the Harvard staffer in charge, Andrei Cristea (cristea@fas.harvard.edu)
