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The triad for global economic
regulatory authority under the United Nations system
included specialized agencies for labor, finance and
trade. The only surviving agency of the League of
Nations, the
International Labour Office, changed it’s name to the
International Labor Organization (ILO) and transferred
affiliations to the United Nations in 1946 following a
conference in Montreal to revise the Conventions. It was
the first agency of the economic triad.
In preparation for the transfer,
a conference was held in Philadelphia to revise the ILO
Constitution. The revision, known as the Declaration of
Philadelphia1 was adopted and annexed on the
10th of May 1944. The Declaration presents the aims and
purposes of the ILO. The following is Article I of the
Declaration:
The Conference reaffirms the
fundamental principles on which the Organization
is based and, in particular, that:
(a) labour is not a
commodity;
(b) freedom of expression
and of association are essential to sustained
progress;
(c) poverty anywhere
constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere;
(d) the war against want
requires to be carried on with unrelenting
vigour within each nation, and by continuous and
concerted international effort in which the
representatives of workers and employers,
enjoying equal status with those of governments,
join with them in free discussion and democratic
decision with a view to the promotion of the
common welfare.
On June 24, 1947,
President Truman transmitted to the U.S. Senate for
ratification, the Final Articles Revision Convention,
1946 (No. 80) agreed to in Montreal. The revision made
the International Labor Organization the first
specialized UN agency under Article 57 of the UN
Charter. The convention was ratified by the Senate and
was entered into force as a treaty on June 24, 1948.2
Finance
and Trade
The framework for the international
financial system is known by the location where the
delegates met to write the conventions. The
location was Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The
conference produced language to create the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)
coupled with the International Monetary Fund.
"When the Fund and the Bank were
conceived, in the course of discussions between
officials of the United States and Great Britain during
the Second World War, their purposes were clearly
delineated: financial stabilization for the one and
postwar reconstruction and economic development for the
other. Their separate
specific functions were less clearly defined, and once
they began operations in the late 1940s, they found that
they would at least occasionally have to coordinate
their efforts to help the same countries cope with
different manifestations of the same problems."3
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Bretton Woods
Conference4
Administrative/Biographical
history: During World War II, some
governments were preparing post-war
monetary plans — primarily through
the efforts of the United Kingdom
and the United States. The British
Plan made public by Lord Keynes in
early 1943, called for an
"International Stabilization Fund"
to help international economies.
Harry Dexter White, deputy secretary
of the U.S. Treasury, was called
upon to formulate an American
response to the British plan.
By March 1943, White was able to
report to President Roosevelt on the
progress on a "Stabilization Fund
for the United and Associated
Nations and an International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development",
a Treasury joint effort with the
Department of State, the Board of
Economic Warfare and the
Export-Import Bank. By then, a draft
had been prepared by representatives
of the United States and United
Kingdom and shared with technical
experts from Russia and China. In
June 1943, White hosted a "Technical
Experts Meeting" to discuss the
Stabilization Plan... ...By the
spring of 1944, the "Joint Statement
of Experts on the International
Monetary Fund" was published
simultaneously in eight consulting
countries, reporting the views of
experts for a more detailed plan.
The United Nations Monetary and
Financial Conference opened on July
1, 1944 in Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire. Forty-four
governments accepted the invitation
of President Roosevelt to come
together for the purposes of
promoting international economic
stability. U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury Henry Morgenthau was
elected president of the Conference.
Three commissions were established
to conduct the work of the
Conference: Commission I was charged
with formulating the Articles of
Agreement of the International
Monetary Fund, Commission II assumed
the same responsibility with respect
to the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, and
Commission III was to consider other
means on international financial
cooperation.
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The
third part of the triad was to have been the
International Trade Organization negotiated in Havana,
Cuba in 1947 and presented as the Charter of Havana.
On April 28, 1948, President Truman
submitted the Charter to Congress under the name,
‘Charter for the International Trade Organization (ITO).5
The Charter was never ratified due to concerns for the
sovereignty of our nation. It was withdrawn in 1950.
Additional Reading:
U.S. State Department - Bretton Woods History
Article - New
York Times, February 12, 1945,
President Roosevelt's Message to Congress on Bretton
Woods Money and Banking Proposals
The Bretton Woods Debates: A Memoir by
Raymond F. Mikesell
IMF Chronology
Silent Revolution: The International Monetary
Fund 1979-1989
Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary
Fund
IMF Fact Sheets
IMF and the World Trade Organization
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