IAEA
THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved on
October 26, 1956, at a conference held at U.N. Headquarters, New York,
came into force on July 29, 1957. The Agency is under the aegis of the
United Nations, but unlike others, it is not a specialized agency.
PURPOSES:-
To promote the peaceful uses of atomic energy; to ensure that
assistance provided by it or at its request or under its supervision or
control is not used in such a way as to further any military purpose.
According to the statute of the IAEA, the agency “shall seek to
accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. It shall ensure, so far as it is able,
that assistance provided by it or at its request to under its supervision and
control is not used in such a way as to further any military purpose”.
The IAEA acts as a clearinghouse for the pooling and coordination
of experience and research in the peaceful uses of nuclear power and
radioisotopes. It helps its member countries acquire the necessary skills
and materials to share in the benefits of the atomic age. In practice, the
IAEA has been particularly concerned with bringing the advantages of
atomic energy to under developed regions.
The IAEA is obliged under its statute to “ensure, so far as it is
able”, that all the activities in which it takes part are directed excluding to
civilian uses. A second important task of the IAEA then, is to establish a
system of supervision and control to make certain that none of the
assistance programmes that it fosters and none of the materials whose
distributions it supervises are used for military purposes. This aspects of
the work assumed significance far beyond its primary objective when the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons came into force in
the March, 1970, since the IAEA is the body responsible for the necessary
control system under that treaty.
MEMBERSHIP:-
Any member of the United States or of any of the specialized
agencies that signed the statute within 90 days after 26 October 1956
thereby became a charter member of the IAEA upon ratification of the
statute. Other countries, even if not members, of the UN or any of the
specialized agencies, may be admitted by the General Conference of the
IAEA upon recommendation of the Board of Governors. Pakistan is also a
member of this organization.
ILO
THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
The International labour organization was established on
1919, when constitution was adopted as part XIII of Treaty of Versailles.
Became specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946.
PURPOSES:– To contribute the establishment of lasting peace by promoting soical justice to improve labour condition and living standards through intentional action; to promote economic and social stability. The United
States with drew from the ILO in 1977 and resumed membership in 1980.
The aims and objects of the ILO were originally set forth in the
preamble to its constitution, drawn up in 1919. The preamble declares that
“Universal and lasting peace can be establish only if it is based upon social
justice”. Hence, the basic objective of the organization is to help improve
social conditions throughout the world. “Urgently required” are
specifically mentioned in the preamble;. regulation of the hours of work.
including the establishment of a maximum working day and weak;
regulation of the labour supply; prevention of unemployment; provision of
an adequate living wage; protection of the worker against sickness;
disease, and injury arising out of his employment; protection of children,
young persons, and women; provision for old age and injury; protection of
the interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own;
recognition of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value;
and recognition of the principle of freedom of association.
International action in these matters is required, the preamble makes
clear, because “the future of any nation to adopt humane conditions of
labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations’ which desire to improve
the conditions in their own countries”. Finally, in agreeing to the ILO
constitution, the member governments declare in the preamble that they
are “moved by sentiments of justice and humanity as well as by the desire
to secure the permanent peace of the world”.
Constitution of the ILO, affirms that labour is not a commodity; that
freedom of expression and association are essential to sustained progress;.
that poverty anywhere constitutes, a danger to prosperity everywhere; and
that the war against want must be carried on not only with unrelenting
vigor within each nation but also 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”.
SERVICES:
The ILO provides technical assistance in social policy and
administration and is manpower training and utilization and fosters
Cooperative organizations and rural industries. It compiles labour statistics
and conducts research on the social problems of international competition, unemployment and underemployment, labour and industrial relations and
technological change.
NOBEL PRIZE:
The ILO was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1969 in
recognition of its far-flung and constructive activities.
MEMBERSHIP:
Among intergovernmental organizations the ILO is unique in that
member states are represented not only by delegates of their governments
but also by delegates of those states employers and workers, especially
trade union. More than 170 nations of the world are members of the ILO.
Pakistan is also a member of this organization.
WORKING OPERATIONS:
National representatives to the ILO meet at the annual International
Labour Conference. The executive authority of the organization is vested
in the Governing Body, which is elected by the Conference. The
International Labour Office of Geneva, composed of the permanent
Secretariat and professional staff, handles the day to day operations of the
ILO. It is under the supervision of an appointed director general and has
international civil servants and technical assistance experts working in
countries throughout the world. Monthly International Labour Review and
the year Book of Labour Statistics are published regularly.
FAQ
THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF
THE UNITED NATIONS
Hunger is still the most urgent problem confronting the greater part
of humanity. Hundreds of millions of the world’s inhabitants are
seriously
and chronically undernourished. Not only is their diet quantitatively
insufficient, but is quantitatively insufficient as well, lacking the protein
essential to health and vigor. Only about one person in four in the world is
really well fed and adequately nourished. FAO was founded by David
. Lubin, a prosperous California dry-fruit dealer, born in Poland, who
the farmer customers during the agricultural crisis of the 1890, he bough
almost single-handedly founded the institute. Depressed by the plight 4
and managed his own fruit farm in order to study their problems
Rebuffed in his adopted country, he toured the chancelleries of Europe preaching the importance of a healthy agriculture as a requisite of a
healthy international society. Finally Lubin found a sympathetic listener in
King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Under his patronage, the institute
started functioning in Rome in 1908 as a centre for the dissemination of
farming news, trends, prices, statistics, and technique. A useful platform
for launching of FAO that provided larger activities in agriculture.
FAO was the end of a series of conferences held during world war
II. In 1941, the United States conference for Defence, attended by 900
delegates, resolved that it should be a goal of the democracies to conquer
hunger, “not only the obvious hunger that man has always known, but the
hidden hunger revealed by modern knowledge of nutrition”.
On 16th October, 1945 FAO was officially established with its
constitution became effective on the same day.
PURPOSES:
To raise nutrition levels and living standards; to secure
improvements in production and distribution of food and agricultural
products.
As expressed in the preamble to the FAO Constitution, member
states are pledged to promote the common welfare through separate and
collective action to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living,
improve the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and
agricultural products, better the conditions of rural populations and thus
contribute towards an expanding world economy and ensure humanity’s
freedom from hunger. Specifically, FAO is charged with collecting,
evaluating, and disseminating information relating to nutrition, food, and
agriculture and its derivatives, including fisheries, marine products, and
primary forestry products.
FAO is committed to promoting and where appropriate,
recommending national and international action with respect to the
following; (a) scientific, technological, social and economic research
relating to nutrition, food and agriculture and the spread of public
knowledge of nutritional and agricultural science and practice. (b) the
improvement of education and administration about food development. (c)
the conservation of natural resources and the adoptions of improved
methods of agricultural production. (d) the improvement of the processing,
marketing and distribution of food and agricultural products (e) the adoptions of policies for the provision of adequate agricultural credit,
national and international; and (f) the adoption of international policies on
agricultural commodity arrangements.
UNESCO
THE UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC
AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION
“Since wars begin in the minds of men”, the preamble to the
UNESCO constitution states, “it is in the minds of men that the defences
I peace must be constructed”. As also stated in the preamble, “the great
and terrible war which has new ended was a war made possible by the
denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual
respect of men by the propagation, in their place, through ignorance and
prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequality of men and races. World War
II was too recent an event when UNESCO was created for its founders to
forget that fact.
UNESCO was established on 4th November 1946, when twentieth
signatory to constitution deposited instrument of acceptance with
government of United Kingdom.
Occasional attempts at international cooperation in educational,
scientific, and cultural matters were made before. World War I, but no
machinery existed to promote these efforts on a world wide scale. Even
the league of Nations Covenant, when it was drawn up after the war.
failed to mention international cooperation in these matters. However,
thanks in great part to the efforts of the Belgian delegate Henri La
Fontaine was formed. Composed of 12 eminent persons, the committee
met for the first time in the summer of 1922 under the Chairmanship of
the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Among those who served on the
committee were Marie Curie, Gilhert Murray and Albert Einstein. The
intellectual atmosphere that prevailed in the committee was a lofty one.
but at the sometime the committee established in practical matters that
have proved useful to UNESCO. Thus, the 40 odd national committee of
intellectual cooperation where creation this committee promoted were a
precedent for the national commissions now operating in over 150
countries to further the work of UNESCO. The International Institute of
intellectual cooperation, established with the aid of the French government and located in Paris, began work early in 1926 and provided a permanent
secretariat for the committee.
The league was thus provided with a technical body to promote
international activity and was active in many fields, especially those of
alike. Numerous conferences and symposia were held under the auspices
interest to scholars, professionals, learned societies, librarians and the
of the international Institute in Paris. Among the topics taken up by these
conferences as the world situation became more menacing were the
psychological causes of war and methods of promoting peaceful change as
a substitute for war.
More intensive international cooperation in the field of educational
problems began during world war II itself. A conference of Allied,
Ministers of Education was convened in London in November 1942 to
consider how the devastated educational systems of the countries under
Nazi occupation could be restored after the war. The first meeting of the
conference was attended by representative of eight governments in exile
and the French National Committee of liberation. The conference meet at
the frequent intervals throughout the war, with the participation of a
growing number of representatives of other allied governments. The
United States delegation to the April 1944 meeting of the conference
included J. William Fulbright, then congressman and later senator from
Arkansas state, and the poet Archibald Macheish, at that time librarian of
congress, who latter to participate in the drafting of UNESCO’s
constitution.
It was decided at San Francisco that one of the objectives of the UN
should be to promote international cultural and educational cooperation.
Addressing the closing plenary session, President Truman of US declared,
“we must set up an effective agency for constant and through interchange
of thought and ideas, for there lies the road to a better and more tolerant
understanding among nations and among peoples”.
The conference creating UNESCO was convened by the UK and
France in London in November 1945. It was decided that the new
organization should deal not only with the transmission of existing
knowledge but also with the pursuit of new knowledge. Hence, the
encouragement of natural and social sciences through international
Cooperation was one of the principal tasks assigned UNESCO. UNESCO’s constitution was adopted by the London conference after
only two weeks of discussion and went into effect on 4th November, 1946,
when 20 states had deposited instruments of acceptance with U.K.
Government.
PURPOSES:
is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among
UNESCO’s purpose as a member of the UN family of organizations
the nations through education, science and culture in order to further
universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights
and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the
world, without distinction of race, language or religion, by the charter of
the United Nations”.
To collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and
understanding of people through all means of mass communication.
To give fresh impulse to popular education and the spread of culture
by collaborating with members, at their request, in the development of
educational activities; by instituting collaborating among the nations to
advance the ideal of equality of educational opportunities without regard to
race, sex or any distinctions, economic or social; and by suggesting
educational methods best suited to prepare the children of the world for
the responsibilities of freedom and
To maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge by ensuring the
conservation and protection of the world’s heritage of books, work or art.
WHO
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
In taking the pulse of global health in 1974, WHO member states
concluded that despite vaccine, antibiotic drugs, and a haste of extra
ordinary advances in medial technology, the world was far from healthy.
There was a “signal failure”, “the 27th World Health Assembly concluded
to provide basic services to two-third of the world’s population,
particularly to rural inhabitants and the urban poor, who despite being
most needy and in the majority were the most neglected. That assessment
made two dozen years after WHO’s establishment led to reorientation of
year 2000” through the approach of primary health care. The main task of
WHO’s outlook and to the adoptions of the goal of “health for all by the WHO through the end of this century is to work to ensure that people
everywhere have access to health services that will enable them to lead
socially and economically productive lives.
During the 19th century, waves of communicable diseases swept
Europe, accompanying the growth of railways and steam navigation. yet
the first international sanitary conference, attended by 12 governments,
was not held until 1851. An international convention on quarantine was
drawn up but it was ratified by only three states. Progress was slow.
The limited objectives of the nations participating in these early
conferences also militated against the success of international health
efforts. International public health did not come of age until the 20th
century. The first international health bureau with its own secretariat was
established by the republics of the Americas in 1902 – the International
Sanitary Bureau. The name was changed in 1923 to the Pan American
Sanitary Bureau.
The idea of a permanent international agency to deal with health
questions was seriously discussed for the first time at the 1874 conference,
but it was not until 1903 that the establishment of such an agency was
recommended. By that time; scientific discoveries concerning cholera,
plague, and yellow fever had been generally accepted. The agency, known
as the office International d’Hygiene Publique (OIHP), was created in
December 1907 by an agreement signed by 12 states (Belgium, Brazil,
Egypt, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain,
Switzerland, The UK and The US). The OIHP was located in Paris, and
its first staff consisted of nine persons. Originally a predominantly
European institution, the OIHP grew to include nearly 60 countries and
colonies by 1914.
World War I left in its wake disastrous pandemics. The influenza
wave of 1918-19 was estimated to have killed 15 to 20 million people, and
in 1919, almost 250,000 cases of typhus-were reported in Poland and more
than 1.6 million in the USSR. Other disasters also made heavy demands
on the OIHP.
The OIHP found itself over burdened with work. Early in 1920, a
plan for a permanent international health organization was approved by the
league of Nations. United official action to combat the typhus epidemic
then raging in Poland was urged by the league’s council. The OIHP,
however, was unable to participate in an interim combined league – OIHP – committee. This was partly because the U.S, which was not a member of
the league, wished to remain in the OIHP but could not if the OIHP were
absorbed into a league – connected agency. The OIHP existed for another
generation maintaining a formal relationship with the league of Nations.
The OIHP’s main concern continued to be supervision and
improvement of international quarantine measures. Smallpox and typhus
were added to the quarantinable diseases by the International Sanitary
Convention in 1926. Also adopted were measures requiring governments
to notify the OIHP immediately of any outbreak of plague, cholera, or
yellow fever or of the appearance of smallpox or typhus in epidemic form.
The league of Nations established epidemiological intelligence
service to collect and disseminate world wide data on the status of
epidemic diseases of international significance. The Malaria commission
was founded and adopted a new international approach; to study and
advise on control of the disease in regions where it existed rather then to
work out the conventional precautions needed to prevent its spread from
country to country. The annual reports of the league’s cancer commission
on such matters as results of radiotherapy in cancer of the uterus became
an important source of international information on that disease. Other
technical commission included these on typhus, leprosy, and biological
standardization.
Most of the work of the OIHP and the league’s health units was cut
short by world war II, although the weekly Epidemiological Record
continued. Fear of new postwar epidemics prompted the Allies to draw up
plans for action. At its first meeting in 1943, the newly created United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) put health
work among its “primary and fundamental responsibilities”.
At its first meeting, in 1946, the UN Economic and Social Council
decided to call an international conference to consider the establishment of
a single health organization of the UN. the conference met in New York
and on 22 July adopted a constitution for the World Health Organization
which would carry on the functions previously performed by the league
and the OIHP.
WHO did not come into existence until 7 April, 1948, when its
constitution was ratified by the required 26 UN member states. In the
meantime, UNRRA was dissolved and a WHO Interim Commission Carried out the most indispensable of UNRRA’s health functions. The first WHO assembly convened in June 1948.
Among the severe problems that beset the Interim Commission was
Cholera epidemic in Egypt in 1947. Three cases were reported on 22
September; by October 33,000 cases were reported in widely separated
areas on both sides of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Urgent calls for
vaccine were sent out by the Interim commission within hours after the
last three cases were reported, and by means of history making cholera
airlift, 20 million doses of vaccine were flown to Cairo from the US, the
USSR, India and elsewhere, one third of them outright gifts. The cholera
epidemic claimed.
IDA
THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
ASSOCIATION
The world’s poorer countries have gone heavily into debt to finance
their development. The total outstanding debt of 90 such countries rose
from $51 million in 1970 to an estimated $485 billion in 1985. Annual
interests and bank charges on this debt had, by 1985, reached over $100
billion. Many
countries have long since arrived at the point where they can no longer
afford to raise all the development capital that they are in a position to use
at ordinary rates of interest and in the time span of conventional loans,
IBRD loan included. The function of the International Development
Association, an affiliate of the Bank and the youngest member of the
World Bank group (IBRD, IFC and IDA), is to supply financing for high-
priority purposes on terms that will permit such countries to pursue their
development without adding excessively to their debt-servicing burden.
The IDA’s loans are interest free and payable over very long terms, with
extended grace periods. As a result, the IDA’s resources unlike the
resources of a regular lending institution, must be regularly replenished
through contributions if the agency is to continue in business.
discussed in the UN at various times during the 1950. A report drawn up
The creation of an international agency such as the IDA was
in 1951 by a group of experts on financing and economic development
referred to the need for an “International development authority; Although
such proposals were at first opposed by the US the IDA as it was finally launched was largely the result of US initiative. In 1958, the US Senate
passed a resolution introduced by Senator, A.S. Mike, Monraney calling
for cooperative international action along those lines. Eventually, on
October, 1959, the IBRD’s Board of Governors approved, without
objections, a motion of US Secretary of the Treasury Robert Anderson
that a new agency, under the name International Development Association,
by established as an affiliate of the Bank.
The debate that preceded the Board’s action revealed potential
disagreements among members of the Bank on a number of points, such as
the terms that the IDA should set for its loans, the permissible restrictions
that countries subscribing to the IDA’s capital could place on the use of
funds supplied in their national currencies, and related mattes. Rather than
decide these matters itself, the Board of Governors asked the Executive
Directors of the IBRD to draw up Articles of Agreement for the IDA,
which would then be submitted to the Bank’s member governments.
The IDA’s Articles of Agreement were accordingly drafted by the
Executive Directors of the IBRD and early in 1960 transmitted to the
member governments of the Bank. The next step was for those
governments desiring to join the IDA to take whatever legislative or other
action might be required to accept membership and to subscribe funds.
The new lending association came into existence on 24th September, 1960,
when governments whose subscriptions to its capital aggregated $650
million, or 65% of the projected $1 billion goal, had accepted
membership. The IDA started operations in November of that year.
PURPOSES:
To further economic development of its members by providing
finance on terms which bear less heavily on balance of payments
members than these of conventional loans.
In the preamble to the Articles of Agreement, the signatory
governments declare their conviction that mutual cooperation for
constructive economic purposes, healthy development of the world
economy, and balanced growth of international trade faster peace a
world prosperity; that higher standard, of living and economic and social
progress in the less developed countries are desirable not only in the
interest of the latter but also for the international community as a whole
and that achievement of those objectives would be facilitated by a in the international flow of capital, public and private, to assist in
t of the resources of less developed countries.
Hence, as stated in its Articles of Agreement, the purposes of the
IDA are “to promote economic development, increase productivity and
thus raise standards of living in the less-developed areas of the world
included within the Association’s membership, in particular by providing
finance to meet their important and developmental requirements on terms
which are more flexible and bear less heavily on the balance of payments
than those of Conventional loans, thereby furthering the development
objectives of the (IBRD) and supplementing its activities.”
MEMBERSHIP:
For the purpose of the IDA, members are divided into two groups
or categories. Part I members, of which there were 22 as of 30 June,
1986, are economically advanced countries. These countries pay their
subscriptions in convertible currencies and have made further agreed
contributions to replenish the association’s resources. Part II members,
112 in mid 1986, are the less developed countries, which pays 10% of
their subscriptions in convertible currencies and the remaining 90% and
any additional subscription, in their own currency.
IBRD
THE INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR
RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development like its
sister institution, the International Monitory Fund (IMF), was born of the
realization by the Allies during world war II that tremendous difficulties in
reconstruction and development would face them in the postwar
transition period, necessitating international economic and financial
cooperation on a vast scale. As early as February 1943, US undersecretary
of State Summer B. Welles urged preparatory consultation an aimed at the
establishment of agencies to finance such reconstruction and development.
The US and the UK took leading roles in the negotiations that were to
result in the formation of the IBRD and the IMF.
The IBRD emerged form the 1944 Bretton woods conference as the
December, 1945, when the constitutions, or Articles of Agreement of the
sister organization to the IMF. They came into existence on 27th two organizations were singed in Washington, D.C. membership in the
Aund is a prerequisite to membership in the Bank.
Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which
The IBRD has two affiliates, the International Developmen
are described in separate chapters. The three institutions are
refereed to as the World Bank Group.
PURPOSES:
The principal purposes of the IBRD, as set forth in its Articles of
Agreement, are to assist in the reconstruction and development of membe
territories by facilitating the investment of capital for productive purposes
thus promoting the long-range balanced growth of international trade
increased productivity, higher standards of living, and better conditions fr
labour; to supplement private investment when private capital is a
available on reasonable terms by providing financing out of its ow
resource; and to coordinate its own lending with other international lous
so that the most urgent and useful projects will receive priority, with due
regard for the effect its investments may have on business condition
member territories. One of the Bank’s early functions was to assist in
brining about a smooth transition from wartime to peaceful economics
However, economic development soon became the Bank’s main object.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
All powers of the Bank are vested in its Board of Governors
composed of one governor and one alternate from each member st
Ministers of finance, Central Bank presidents, or persons of comparab
status usually represent member states on the Bank’s Board of Governors
The Board meets annually.
The Bank is organized somewhat like a corporation. According
an agree upon formula, member countries subscribe to share of the Bank
capital stock. Each governor is entitled to cast 250 votes plus one vote for
each share of capital stock subscribed by his country. Bhutan, with a
shares of the Bank’s Capital stock as of 30 June, 1986 was the smalles
shareholder; the United States, with 138,098 shares was the largest.
WORLD BANK AND PAKISTAN:
In a comprehensive portfolio review meeting of the World Bank
decided recently that World Bank will provide us $ 800 million
Provincial Irrigation Development Authorities (PIDAS) for the
progress the National Drainage Programme. Matters Development Authority
(WAPDA), NESPAK, transport sector and education also figured at the
meeting. The World Bank will also provide us. $ 60 million to Agricultural
Development Bank for organizing workshops in collaboration, micro-
credit specialists, NGO’s community based organizations and the officials
of the Prime Minister’s literacy commission.
IFC
THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION
The International Finance Corporation is the member of the World
Bank group that promotes the growth of the private sector in less
developed member countries. The IFC’s principal activity is helping
finance individual private enterprise projects that contribute to the
economic development of the country or region where the project is
located. The corporation is one of the very few international development
organizations that can supply equity financing as well as provide loans and
make underwriting and standby commitments. In addition, the IFC helps
identify and promote promising projects; encourages the flow of domestic
and foreign capital in productive investments in developing countries;
assists development finance companies and other institutions with goals
similar to the IFC’s’ helps improve investment conditions in the
developing countries by assisting in the establishment of institutions that
marshal funds for investments or provide a liquid market for investments;
and assists banks and companies that have difficulty in making viable plans
for sound projects by offering the needed finance.
Within a few years of the founding of the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), it became evident that sufficient
provision had not been made for financing the development of the private
sector in countries looking to the UN system for aid. The Bank’s charter
restrained it from making equity (capital stock) investments or from
lending money, directly or indirectly,, to a private company without a
governmental guarantee. Yet “venture capital” was the very thing needed
in many developing countries to get a variety of productive enterprises
underway, and the amount of venture capital available through private
banking and investment channels was inadequate.
however strongly endorsed the idea of an international financial institution
The majority of member of the Economic and Social Council, to aid the private sector of development, and by late 1954, a compromise
was worked out. The International Finance Corporation, as originally
established, could lend money to private enterprises without government
guarantees, but it was not empowered to make equity investments, though
loans with certain equity features, such as stock options, were allowed.
The 31 countries necessary to launch the IFC pledged their consent over
the next 18 months, and the IFC formally came into existence on 24 July
1956 as a separate legal entity affiliated with the IBRD.
The IFC’s early investments often included such features as stock
options and other profit sharing devices in lieu of direct equity financing,
but the terms were complex and difficult to negotiate, and it soon became
apparent to all concerned that the IFC’s effectiveness was severely
circumscribed by the restriction on equity investment. Proposals to amend
the charter so as to permit the IFC to hold shares were put to the Board of
Directors and the Board of Governors and approved in 1961 – with the
support, this time, of both the UK and the US. The revision of the IFC’s
charter in 1961 to permit investment in equities made it possible to
broaden and diversify operations as well as to simplify the terms of
investment. With the demand for the IFC’s services steadily expanding,
the Board of Directors amended the charter again in 1965 to permit the
IFC to borrow from the IBRD up to four times its unimpaired subscribed
capital and surplus.
PURPOSES:
In its simplest form, the IFC’s purpose is to assist its less developed
member countries by promoting the growth of the private sector of their
economies. It accomplishes this purpose by providing venture capital for
productive private enterprises is association with local investors and
management, by encouraging the development of local capital markets.
and by stimulating the flow of private capital. The corporation is designed
to, supplement, rather than replace, private capital. It provides financial
and technical assistance to privately controlled development finance
companies. The IFC attempts to recruit foreign capital for a project, and it
encourages the participation of other private investors in the corporation’s
own commitments. IMF
THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization or more
than 145 member nations that work to establish an efficient system of
international payments and trade. It seeks to help its members achieve
rapid economic growth, a high level of employment, and improved
standard of living. The IMF serves as an agency for consultation on world
monetary and
debt problems. Its members cooperate to maintain orderly exchange
arrangements between nations.
The 1930 was a period not only of great political upheaval but also
of grave financial economic difficulty. The gold standard was largely
abandoned, and currency exchange rates fluctuated widely. Economic
choose was aggravated by a lack of coordination between governments that
imposed controls on international transactions and engaged in ruthless
economic warfare. During the world war II most countries realized that
they would emerge from the conflict with depleted economic resources
just when they would have to confront a reconstruction effort of staggering
dimensions. It was also known that the UK would emerge from the war as
the world’s principal debtor nation and the US, whose productive capacity
had greatly increased during the war, as the world’s principal creditor
nation.
The UK and US and their allies were convinced that international
economic and financial cooperation through inter governmental institutions
was required to prevent a more serious recurrence of the economic and
monetary choose of the 1930. Two plans were proposed almost
simultaneously in 1943; a US plan for an International Stabilization Fund,
referred to as the White plan, after H.D. White, then assistant to the US
secretary of the treasury; and a British plan for an International clearing
Union, referred to as the Keyens plan, after the British economist John
Maynard Keyens. Both plans called for international machinery to stabilize
currencies and a radical innovation a prohibition against altering
exchange rates beyond narrow limits without international approval. Both
would have introduced a new international currency unit defined in terms
of ‘gold. The American plan called for participating nations to contribute to
a relatively limited stabilization fund of about $5 billions on which they would be permitted to draw in order to bridge balance of
payments
deficits. The British plan would have established a system of international
clearing accounts, underwhich each member country could borrow up to
its own quota limit, while its creditors would be credited with
corresponding amounts, expressed in international currency units. Boch
plans were discussed with financial experts of their powers, including the
Republic of China, the French committee for liberation, and the USSR,
The International Monetary Fund as finally constituted resembled the US
suggested stabilization fund. The proposal to established a new
international Monetary unit was deferred for the time being.
THE BRETTON WOODS CONFERENCE:
A conference called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
attended by delegates from all 44 United Associated Nations was held
from 1 to 22 July 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The Bretton
Woods Conference produced the constitutions, or Articles of Agreement,
of two agencies conceived as sister institutions; the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD).
The IMF came into existence on 27 December 1945, when 29
governments, responsible for 80% of the quotas to be contributed to the
Fund, signed the IMF Articles of Agreement. An Agreement with the UN.
underwhich the IMF became a specialized agency, entered into force on
15 November 1947.
PURPOSES:
The purposes of IMF are the following:-
1. To promote international monetary cooperation.
2. To facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of
international trade and contribute thereby to the promotion
and maintenance of high levels of employment and real
income.
3. To promote exchange stability, maintain orderly exchange
arrangements among member states and avoid competitive
currency depreciation.
4. To assist in establishing a multilateral system of payments of
I current transactions among members and in eliminating
foreign exchange restrictions that hamper world trade; and 5. To alleviate serious disequilibrium in the international balance
of payments of members by making the resources of the Fund
available under adequate safeguards, so as to prevent the
members from resorting to measures that endanger national or
international property.
ICAO
THE INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION
ORGANIZATION
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was
established on 4th April, 1947, after working as a provisional organization
since June 1945.
PURPOSE:
To study problems of international civil aviation; to establish
international standards and regulations; to promote safety measures.
uniform regulations for operation, simpler procedures at international
borders, and the use of new technical methods and equipment. It has
evolved standards for meteorological services, traffic control,
communications, radio beacons and ranges, search and rescue
organization, and other facilities. It has brought about much simplification
of customs, immigration and public health regulations as they apply to
international air transport.
It drafts international air law conventions, and is concerned with
economic aspects of air travel.
UPU
THE UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION
Every year, over 290 billion pieces of mail are channeled into the
inland stream of some 630,000 post offices around the globe, employing
about 5 million person. Of this mass, some 8 billion pieces cross
international boundaries with a minimum of formalities and are swiftly and
safely delivered to their destinations. The orderly and economical
movement of international mail is made possible by the constitution and
convention of the Universal Postal Union, the basic Acts under which the
UPU operates. Some 168 countries now come under these Acts, the
provisions affect virtually the entire world population. Under the nstitution, UPU member countries form a single postal territory for the
ciprocal exchange of letter post items, and freedom of transit is
aranteed throughout the entire territory of the union.
Although generally taken for granted, present day postal service is
of relatively recent origin. The use of postage stamps for prepayment of
postage was not introduced until 1840, when the UK established a unified
internal postage charge, the famous penny rate, to be paid by the sender of
a letter regardless of the distance it had to travel. Until that year, the
postal fee based on distance was often very high and was not paid by the
sender but by the addressee. If the addressee could not pay, the letter was
returned. Gradually, other countries introduced adhesive stamps, and their
use spread to international mail. In 1863, on the initiative of the US,
representatives of 15 postal administrations met in Paris to consider the
problem of standardizing international postal practices.
The decisive development came with the meeting of the first
International Postal congress at Bern, in Switzerland in 1874, at the
suggestion of the German government. The Bern congress was attended by
delegates from 22 countries; 20 European countries (including Russia),
Egypt, and the US. The congress adopted a treaty concerning the
establishment of a General Post Union commonly known as the Bern
Treaty signed on 9th October 1874. This was the forerunner of the series
of multilateral Universal Postal Union convention and came into force in
the following year, when the union was formally established, on first July,
1875 to administer its operative regulations.
The 1874 convention provided for subsequent postal congresses to
revise the connection in the light of economic and the technical
developments. The second congress, held in Paris in 1878, changed the
name of the General Postal Union to the Universal Postal Union (UPU).
Four more congresses were held prior to World War I Lisbon 1885,
Vienna, 1891; Washington, 1897; and Rome, 1906. There were five
congresses between the wars: Madrid, 1920; Stockholm 1924: London
1929, Cairo, 1934; and Buenos Airs, 1939. The first post World War II
congress met in Paris in 1947 and arranged for the UPU to be recognised
as a specialized agency of the UN family in 1948. Other congresses meet
at Brussels, 1952; Ottawa, 1957; Vienna, 1954; Tokyo 1969; Lausanne
1974; Rio de Janeiro, 1979; and Hamburg, 1984. The 20th congress was
scheduled to take place in Washington in 1989. PURPOSES:
The basic objective of the Union was stated in the 1874 convention,
reiterated in all successive revisions, and embodied in the constitution,
“The countries adopting this constitution comprise, under the title of the
Universal Postal Union, a single postal territory for the reciprocal
exchange of letter-post items”. The 1924. congress added; It is also the
object of the Postal Union to secure the organization and improvement of
the various international postal services.” The 1947 congress added
another clause; “and to promote the development of international
collaboration in this sphere”.
In recognition of the Union’s continued interest and newly assumed
responsibilities in the field of development aid, the congress held in
Vienna in 1964 enlarged the UPU’s goals to include the provision of postal
technical assistance to member states.
Under the single territory principle, all the Union’s member
countries are bound by the constitution and conventions to observe certain
fundamental rules pertaining to ordinary mails. Ordinary mail (the letter
post) under the Lausanne Convention includes letters, post cards, printed
papers, small packets, and literature for the blind, such as books in
Braille. Although the convention lays down basic postage rates for
ordinary mail sent to addresses in UPU territory, variations are permitted
within generous limits. Postal authorities of all member states are pledged
to handle all mail with equal care, regardless of its origin and destination,
and to expedite mail originating in other UPU countries on a level
comparable to the best means of conveyance used for their own mail. In
past, foreign mail was delivered to its destination without charge to the
country where it was posted and each country retained the postage
collected on international mail. Since mid 1971, however, where there is
an imbalance between mail sent and received, the postal administration of
the country receiving the larger quantity is authorized to task for
repayment at a standard rate (fixed by the Postal Congress) to offset its
excess costs. However, each country reimburses, at standard rates fixed
by the Universal Postal Congress, all intermediary countries through
which its mail passes in transit.
Freedom of transit – the basic principle of the Union – is guaranteed
throughout UPU territory. Specific regulations provide for the dispatch of
mail and for the return of undeliverable mail to the sender. Certain articles, such as opium and other drugs and inflammable or explosive
agents, are excluded from the international mails.
ITU
THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION
UNION
The International Telecommunication union is the oldest of the
intergovernmental organization that have become specialized agencies
related to the UN. In 1985, a convention establishing an International
Telegraph Union was signed in Paris by the plenipotentiaries of 20
continental European states, including two extending into Asia, Russia and
Turkey. Three years later, a permanent international bureau for the union
was established in Bern, Switzerland. This bureau, which operate until
1948, was the forerunner of the present General Secretariat of the ITU. In
1885, at Berlin, the first regulations concerning international telephone
services were added to the telegraph regulations annexed to the Paris
convention. By the end of the 19th century, radiotelegraphy, or
“wireless”, had been developed, and for the first time it was possible to
communicate directly between shore stations and ships at sea. Rival
wireless companies frequently refused to accept one another’s massages.
In 1903, an international conference was called to consider to problem,
and in 1906, in Berlin, 29 maritime states signed the International
Radiotelegraph convention, establishing the principle of compulsory
intercommunication between vessels at sea and the land. The International
Radiotelegraph conference, which meet in Washington in 1927, drew up
for the first time a table of frequency allocations.
Two plenipotentiary conferences were held in 1932 at Madrid, one
covering telephone and telegraph and the other radiotelegraph
communication. The two existing conventions were amalgamated into a
single International Telecommunication Convention
(the word
Telecommunication signifying “any transmission, emission or reception of
signs, signals, writing, images and sound, or intelligence of any nature by
wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems”). The countries
accepting the new convention, which came into force on first January
1934, formed the International Telecommunication Union.
revised six times. The plenipotentiary conference of the ITU meeting in
The International Telecommunication Convention of 1932 has been Atlantic city in 1947, radically changed the organization to keep up with
developments in telecommunication; for example, a new permanent organ.
the International Frequency Registration Board, was created to cope with
the over crowding of certain transmission frequencies; and an agreement
was drawn up underwhich the ITU was reorganized by the UN as the
specialized agency for telecommunication. The convention was further
modified in certain respects by plenipotentiary conferences in 1952, 1959,
1973 and 1982,
PURPOSES:
The ITU’s objectives include maintaining and extending
international cooperation between all members of the union for the
improvement and rational use of telecommunication; promoting and
offering technical assistance to developing countries in the field of
telecommunication; promoting the development of technical facilities and
their efficient operation; making telecommunication services, as for as
possible, generally available to the public; and harmonizing the actions of
nations in the attainment of these goals.
WMO
THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
The practical used of meteorology are to instruct, advise, and warn
mankind about the weather. Thus it can help prevent devastation caused by
flood, draught, and storm; it can also assist the peoples of the world in
best adopting their agriculture and industry to the climatic conditions under
which they live.
For meteorology, international cooperation is indispensable. The
reasons are expressed in the following words. “There is the atmosphere
itself, the atmosphere in which we live and breathe and which makes life
on this planet possible. Scientists have studied the atmosphere for many
decades, but its problems continue to defy us. The reasons for our limited
progress are obvious. Weather cannot be easily reproduced and observed
in the laboratory. It must, therefore, be studied in all of its violence
wherever it has its way. Here, new scientific tools have become available.
With modern commuters, rockets and satellites, the time is ripe to harness
a variety of disciplines for a concerned attack. Atmospheric sciences
require world-wide observation and hence international cooperation”,
said US President John F. Kennedy. The first international meteorological congress was held in Vienna
in 1873; it led to the founding of the International Meteorological
Organization, composed of directors of meteorological services from
various countries and territories throughout the world. This body carried
out ambitious programmes to perfect and standardize international
meteorological practices.
As transportation, communications, agriculture, and industry,
developed in the 20th century, they increasingly relied on meteorology,
while meteorology itself relied to an increasing extent on advances in
science and technology to perfect its methods of observing and predicting
weather phenomena. Hence, the closest possible collaboration was called
for between the International Meteorological Organization and other
international bodies.
A conference of directors of national meteorological services met in
Washington in 1947 under the auspices of International Meteorological
organization and adopted the world meteorological Convention.
establishing the World Meteorological Organization as a UN specialized
agency. On 23rd March, 1950; after 30 singers had ratified or accessed to
the convention, it came into force. The first WMO congress opened in
Paris on 19 March, 1951.
PURPOSES:
As set forth in the World Meteorological Convention, the purposes
of the WMO are sixfold:-
1. To facilitate Worldwide cooperation in the establishment of
network of stations for meteorological, hydrological, and
other geophysical observations and to
promote the
establishment and maintenance of meteorological centres.
2. To promote the establishment and maintenance of systems for
rapid exchange of weather information.
3. To promote standardization of meteorological observations
and ensure uniform publication of observations and statistics.
4. To further the application of meteorology to aviation,
shipping, water problems, agriculture and other human
5. To promote activities in operational hydrology
cooperation between meteorological and hydrological
activities. services; and 6. To encourage research and training in meteorology and to
assist in coordinating them at the international level.
STRUCTURE:
The WMO is headed by a President, three vice presidents, elected
the World Meteorological Congress. There is also an Executive
Council and a secretariat.
MEMBERSHIP:
Membership in the WMO is not limited to sovereign states; it may
include territories that maintain their own meteorological services.
Membership is open to any of the 45 states and 30 territories attending the
1947 conference in Washington that signed the convention or to any
member of the UN with a meteorological service. Any of these
automatically becomes a member of WMO open ratifying or acceding to
the convention. Any other state, territory, or group of territories
maintaining its own meteorological services may become eligible for
membership upon approval of two thirds of the WMO membership. Now
WMO has 170 state membership.
IMO
THE INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION
The seven seas, accounting for about two thirds of the earth’s
surface, are the only truly international part of our globe. Except for a
marginal belt a very few miles wide, touching on the shares of countries,
the greater part of the world’s oceans and maritime resources are the
common property of all nations. Since ancient times, however, “freedom
of the seas” has too often been a theoretical ideal rather than a reality. In
such historic era, the great maritime powers tended to use their naval
might to dominate the sea. some of these powers, while serving their own
interests, served the world as a whole, as in the great explorations of
unknown continents. Many sought to use the waters for purely national
interests, particularly in matters affecting straits and other narrow
waterways. Private shipping interests, often supported by their national
governments, have been even more competitive, and international
cooperation in maritime matters has been very limited.
The convention establishing the International Maritime organization.
(originally called the Inter-Governmental Maritime consultative Organization) was drawn up in 1948 by the UN Maritime Conference in
Geneva, but it was ten years before the convention went into effect. The
conference decided that the IMO’s success depended on
participation by
most of the nations with large merchant movies, and it specified that the
organization would come into being only when 21 states, including 7
having at least 1 million grass tons of shipping each had become parties to
the convention. On March 17, 1958, the convention went into effect. The
first IMO Assembly met in London in January 1959. The relationship of
the IMO to the UN as a specialized agency was approved by UN General
Assembly on 18 November 1958 and by the IMO Assembly on 13 January
1959.
PURPOSES:
The purposes of the IMO, as set forth in the convention are the
following:
1. To facilitate cooperation among governments on technical
matters of all kinds affecting shipping engaged in international
trade.
2. To encourage the general adoption of the highest practicable
standards in matters concerning maritime safety, efficiency of
navigation, and the prevention and control of maritime
pollution.
3. To encourage the removed of discriminatory action and
unnecessary restriction by governments engaged in
international trade, so as to promote the availability of
shipping services to world commerce without discrimination.
4. To consider concerning unfair restrictive practices by shipping
concern.
5. To consider any mattes concerning shipping that may be
referred to the IMO by any UN organ or specialized agency.
MEMBERSHIP:
Any state invited to the 1948 Maritime Conference or any member
of the UN may become a member of the IMO by accepting the 1948
convention. Any other state whose application is approved by two thirds of
the IMO membership becomes a member by accepting the convention. If
an IMO member responsible for the international relations of a territory
(or group of territories) declares the convention to be applicable to that
territory, the territory may became an associate member of the IMO. Now
IMO has a membership of 140 countries. WIPO
THE WORLD INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY
ORGANIZATION
Intellectual property includes industrial property, such as inventions,
trademarks, and designs, on the other hand, and the objects of copyright
and neighbouring rights on the other. Until a century ago, there were no
international instruments for the protection of intellectual property.
Legislative provisions for the protection of inventors, writes,
dramatists, and other creates of intellectual property varied form country
to country and could be effective only within the borders of states adopting
them. It came to be widely reorganized that adequate protection of
industrial property encourages industrialization, investment, and honest
trade. That the arts would be advanced by legal safeguards in favours of
practitioners had long been argued, but such safeguards were difficult to
devise and enact into law. The Paris convention of 20 March 1883 and the
Bern convention in Switzerland of 9th September 1886 represented the
initial steps towards systematic provision of the two sorts of international
protection which led eventually to the creation of the world Intellectual
Property organization (WIPO).
The term industrial property is applied in its widest sense in the
convention. In addition to inventions, industrial designs, trademarks,
service marks, indications of source, and appellations of origin, it covers
small patents called utility models in a few countries, trade names or the
designations under which an industrial or commercial activity is carried on
and the suppression of unfair competition.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was
established by a convention signed at Stockholm on 14th July 1967 by 51
states. when the convention entered into force on 26 April 1970, WIPO
incorporated BIRPI and perpetuated its functions.
PURPOSES:
The purposes of WIPO are two fold.
1. To promote the protection of intellectual property throughout
the world through cooperation among states and, where
appropriate, in collaboration with any other international
organization. To ensure administrative cooperation among the nations.
property chiefly in inventions, trade marks, and industrial designs and
Intellectual property comprises tow main branches:- Industrial
copyright, chiefly in literary, musical, artistic, photographic and
cinematography works.
IFAD
THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is the
first international institution established exclusively to provide additional
resources for agricultural and rural development in developing countries
and to channel those resources to the poorest rural population in Africa,
Asia and Latin American, which suffer from Chronic hunger and
malnutrition.
IFAD was one of the major initiatives of the World Food
conference, held in Rome in 1974, following two years of negotiations.
The agreement establishing the Fund was adopted by 91 governments, on
13 June 1976 and was opened for signature or ratification on 20 December
1976, following attainment of the target of $ 1 billion in initial pledges.
The agreement came into force on 30 November 1977.
PURPOSES:
The objective of the Fund is to mobilized additional resources to be
made available on concessional terms to help developing countries
improve their food production and nutrition. The Fund is unique in that its
projects are focused exclusively on agricultural development and it
concentrates on agricultural development and it concentrates on the poorest
sections of the rural population in developing countries. It deals with all
aspects of agriculture, including crops, irrigation, agricultural credit,
storage, livestock and fisheries.
MEMBERSHIP:
IFAD had a total of 150 member nations in July 1995, compared
with 91 at the time of its establishment. UNIDO
THE UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL
DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION
Industrialization is one of the primary goals of the developing
countries, to increase their share of world manufacturing output and
decrease their dependence on imported goods and services and on their
Traditional raw materials export economies. The United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO), the newest specialized agency of the
UN, seek to further that goal though its programme of technical
cooperation with developing countries, designed to aid in the planning and
implementation of industrial projects, the training of personal in
manufacturing and managerial skills, the transfer of technology and the
provision of information, and the promotion of investment in industry in
developing countries.
UNIDO was originally established by the General Assembly in
November 1966 as an autonomous organization within the UN to promote
and accelerate the industrialization of developing countries and to
coordinate the industrial development activities of the UN system.
The first General conference of UNIDO was held in Vienna in
1971. The second General Conference, held in Lima in 1975, proposed
the conversion of UNIDO into a specialized agency “in order to increase
is ability to render assistance to developing countries the most efficient
ways”, The conference also adopted the Lima Declaration and Plan of
Action, which called for developing countries to reach the target of 25%
of world industrial output by the year 2000.
In 1979, a conference of plenipotentiaries, meeting in Vienna,
adopted a constitution for UNIDO, to become effective when at least 80
states had ratified it. This was achieved on 21 June 1985, and UNIDO’S
specialized agency became effective on first January
Conversion into a 1986.
PURPOSES:
The purposes of UNIDO are as follows:-
1. To encourage and extend assistance to developing countries
for the development, expansion and modernization of their
industries; 2. To assist developing countries in the establishment and
operation of industries in order to achieve the full utilization
of locally available natural and human resources.
3. To provide a forum and act as an instrument to serve the
developing and industrialized countries in their contacts,
conclusions, and negotiations.
4. To develop special measures designed to promote cooperation
among developing countries and between developed and
developing countries.
5. To coordinate all activities of the UN system relating to
industrial development.
UNIDO has a membership of 148 member countries.
GATT
THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND
TRADE
Efforts to foster international trade go back to antiquity; so do
national efforts to expand exports to the detriment of competitors and to
restrict or even prohibit imports. Wars have been fought over such issues,
and for long periods of time in many countries, controversy between
projectionists and free traders has dominated the political scene. In the
1930, when the world was suffering from an intense economic depression,
many governments attempted to find shelter behind protective trade
barriers; high tariff walls, quota restrictions on imports, exchange controls
and the like. If anything, these uncoordinated and mutually antagonistic
policies prolonged the international economic crisis. During World War
II, serious thought was given to ways and means of preventing such
restrictive from becoming permanently fastened upon the world. Postwar
attempts to create a full fledged international agency to faster and
liberalize world trade failed. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
is the major result of the efforts that were made in this direction. In the
absence of a true international trade organization, it serves as the only
intergovernmental instrument that lays down rules for trade and
harmonizes trading relations among the nations of the international
community.
traced to the Atlantic Charter and to the lend lease agreements in which
The origin of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade can be
the wartime allies bound themselves to seek a world trading systemb
based nondiscrimination and aimed at higher standards of living to be
hieved through fair, full and free exchange of goods and services..
These agencies to operate in the specialized field of economic affairs
are contemplated, an International Monetary Fund (IMF), an
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and an
International Trade Organization (ITO), The IMF and the IBRD were duly
established at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, but for various
reasons, including the complexity of the problems involved, the drafting of
he ITO charter was delayed. The UN Economic and Social council took
be matter up at its first session, in February 1946, and appointed a 17-
nation preparatory committee to draft such a charter. The committee’s
draft was submitted to a 56-nation conference that met in Havana from 21
November 1947 to 24 March 1948 and after considering some 800
separate amendments, hammered out a document known as the Hawana
charter to serve as the constitution of the ITO.
While the draft charter of the ITO was being worked out prior to the
Havana conference, the governments of the 17 nations preparatory
committee agreed to sponsor negotiation for an interm agreement aimed at
lowering customs tariffs and reducing the other trade restrictions among
themselves. The first tariff negotiating conference was held in Geneva in
1947. The tariff concessions resulting from these special negotiating
essions were embodied in a multilateral agreement called the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which included a set of rules
designed to prevent the tariffs concessions from being frustrated by other
protective devices. The agreement was signed on 30 October 1947 and
tame into force on first January 1948. GATT was originally intended as
to more than a stopgap arrangement pending the creation of the ITO, but
events worked out, it has functioned since 1948 as an agency fulfilling
Some of the proposed ITO’s most important functions.
PURPOSES:
duties. It contains the world’s first common code of commercial conduct
GATT is multilateral trade treaty embodying reciprocal rights and
txchange of goods and so to promote economic development, full
ind fair trading, the objective of which is to expand the production and
employment, and higher of living. Under the agreement, all parties are to
kcord to one another the same “most-favoured-nation” treatment in the
pplication of import and export duties and charges and in their administration. Protection is to be afforded to domestic industries
exclusively through customs tariffs, import quotas being specifically
outlawed as a protectionist device, Countries adhering to GATT agree to
avoid, through consultations, damage to the trashing interests of any of the
contracting parties. GATT itself provides a framework within which
negotiations can be held for the reduction of tariffs and other barriers to
trade and within which the results of such negotiations can be embodied in
a legal instrument. This “fair trading” code can be measured by the fact
that it is accepted and applied by countries accounting for well over 80%
of world export.
MEMBERSHIP:
Since GATT is a treaty rather than an organization, adhering
governments are designated as “contracting parties”. When agreement was
brought into operation of 1st January 1948, it was applied by 8
governments only. Now 95 member countries are associated with this
organization.