International_trade_in_the_post-WWII_era

International trade in the post-WWII era International trade in the post-WWII era. More of this Feature • International Trade • Trade/Environment • Trade/Environment Links Related Resources • Environment/WTO • Tuna/Dolphins • Shrimp/Turtles • NAFTA/Environment Following the end of WWII, the allies decided that a prosperous and lasting peace depended not only on the creation of a stable international political order based on principles embedded in the United Nations (UN) Charter, but also on the creation of a stable liberal international economic order. The twin pillars of the international financial system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), emerged as the institutional alternative to the regionalism characteristic of international financial practices in the post-WWI era. An international trading system, built on free trade principles, was also considered as an alternative to the protectionist global trade regime that evolved, especially after the depression. State foreign economic policies followed the pattern of the United States, which opted to manage domestic economic policy partially by implementing the Smoot-Hawley Act, an act which promoted tariff based import reduction. Contrary to their international financial counterparts, international trade agreements evolved into their current institutional form during the course of almost a fifty year trade, international, tariff, gatt, states, reduction, round, organization, import, economic, during, world, united, tariffs, regime, political, policies, non-tariff, negotiations, ito, history, formal, financial, creation, agreement, uruguay, twin, trade/environment, tokyo, system, stable, protect, principles, order