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Why Did The United States Pass The GATT?

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Regarding the provisions for full employment, business groups were concerned about more than just the Havana Charter. Their criticisms of the employment provisions reflected a distrust of governments extending their jurisdiction to include maintaining levels of full employment. Many such concerns were undoubtedly tied to the passage of the Employment Act of 1946, a symbol of government intervention that was part of the New Deal’s goal of ensuring full employment. (Diebold 17) Especially in face of the growing threat of communism, businessmen feared that the Charter was not just an instrument for trade liberalization, but also a tool encouraging government planning and control. (Diebold 17) Another argument proposed by The National Foreign Trade Council was that the United States would become too entangled with foreign full employment programs. (National Foreign Trade Council 5). The Havana Charter obligates its members to not only take action to ensure full employment in their own countries, but also in all member countries. Even in times of recession, the United States would be required to participate in domestic and foreign full employment programs, increasing …show more content…

Congress prevented the United States from ratifying the ITO charter, then why did the United States pass the GATT? As Odell explains, the ratification of the GATT did not depend on ratification of the ITO. Countries did not need to approve the entire ITO package to sign the GATT, and the GATT’s implementation did not require congressional authorization under US law. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Acts gave Presidents authorization to implement tariff cuts. The GATT, although available as part of the ITO package, was available as an alternative to the heavily criticised ITO. (Odell 186) Hence, business groups and congressional opponents in the United States could invoke the GATT as a less convoluted alternative that did not contain the loopholes, investment

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