It should be mentioned that subsequent criticisms have been leveled against some of these aforesaid institutions. These include charges thsat funds were made available to nations in need subject to dictated conditions, such as cutting deficits, privatization of state-owned industries, trade liberalization, and market deregulation; and that they hereby represent imposition of the interests and will of the most advanced industrial nations upon the developing segments of the world. Most of these criticisms seem to arise from the fact that the world of that time was (and continues to be) divided into national factions--so that, instead of being perceived as efforts on the part of some wealthier relatives to come to the aid of poorer members of the same family, the perception has become one of "rich family A" imposing undue demands upon, or taking advantage of, "poor family B," in the interest of promoting economic stability in the "neighborhood."
Europe's progress toward postwar unity was fundamentally motivated by political purpose. However, as has been related above, the means that were primarily resorted to in order to accomplish this were predominantly economic in nature.
The period following the tragedy of World War II was followed by an active season of countries joining together to promote united efforts for common goals. Again, this appears to have been particularly true regarding economic objectives. As early as 1944, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (commonly referred to as the "Benelux countries") formed a customs union. In 1945, twenty one Arab states plus the Palestine Liberation Organization formed the Arab League, whose purpose was the promotion of closer political and economic relations among its members. Its headquarters was in Cairo.
In April of 1947, representatives from twenty three nations met in Geneva to negotiate reductions in their respective tariffs. By October of the same year, an agreement had been reached; and by the following year, that resultant agreement, called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT") was executed. This body of nations came to be called the World Trade Organization ("WTO"). It presently consists of 120 countries. Although the aforesaid agreement bound all members to an equal degree, an "opting out" article (Article XX) gave individua;l member states the opportunity to ignore it, or to adopt measures in contravention thereof, where such seemed necessary for the protection of public morals within the state, the lives or well-being of its people, or the protection of the wild life or natural resources of said country.
Originating in 1948, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was formed by twenty European nations plus the United States and Canada, to help administer the Marshall Plan. It subsequently grew to thirty two members, including five additional European countries, plus Australia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and New Zealand. It continues to function, as a promoter of economic growth and expansion, and of extended international trade and prosperity.
In 1951, another cooperative effort among European nations created further advantage to all of them. In March of that year, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany signed a pact based upon a proposal originally put forth in 1950 by France's Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and economist Jean Monnet, whereby their coal and steel industries were put under an international supervisory authority. Thus was born the European Coal and Steel Community. Customs duties and quotas were eliminated regarding such commodities imported or exported by these countries; and production was placed under the decision-making functions of a common High Authority. This example of international economic collaboration, and the sense of cooperation that it engendered, produced increased prosperity for its members, and served well to reduce the possibility of war among all since that time. Application of this kind of organization, and such cooperative efforts throughout the world, seem capable of rendering similar benefit to all of mankind.
In the nineteen-fifties, Austria, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland formed what would be entitled the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). It abolished tariffs as between the aforesaid members; but non-members were still required to pay such duties, in varying amounts as such of the respective members should choose to levy. This association bore similarity to, and has been described as a rival of, the European Common Market (which will be discussed hereafter in connection with the European Economic Community); except that, as you will note, the tariffs to outsiders which Common Market members imposed upon non-members was uniform by all and for all, having been arrived at via prior agreement among that organization's constituency; while EFTA constituents were priveleged to individually decide the amounts thereof.
In 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy initiated a plan to improve economic conditions in Latin America. The result was an international group calling itself the Alliance for Progress, which met for the first time in Punta del Este, Uruguay in August of that year. This alliance constituted another attempt at economic cooperation among a group of independent nations. It eventually failed, however, due to the governments of indevidual member nations' reluctance to initiate necessary reforms, as well as inadequate funding.
During the next year, a group of sixteen African nations joined together to found an African Common Market. Its constituent states pledged to work toward the free movement of goods as well as people among its members. Later, in 1980, the Lagos Plan of Action, authored by the group of nations known as the Organization of African Unity, envisaged the creation of a single pan-African common market to be in existence by the year 2000. In 2002, this entity was subsequently replaced by the fifty two member African Union, having a goal of further political and economic integration within Africa.
The nations of the Carribean likewise began to adopt similar steps during the 1960s. A free trade area was proclaimed by a group of Carribean nations in 1968. Known as "CARIFTA," its aim was the prevention of fragmentation within the West Indian region following the period of decolonization which had taken place shortly before.
Meanwhile, several South American nations resumed attempts to forge an entity for economic unification. Thus, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela joined together, in 1969, to establish an economic union to be known as the Andean Common Market. Among its stated goals were trade liberalization, joint industrial planning, and the harmonization of economic policies.
In 1974, the United States and Canada, together with the twenty two European nations plus Australia, Japan, and New Zealand (which together composed the aforedescribed Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), formed the "International Energy Agency." Its endeavors included the creation of a system for sharing oil among its members during shortages, as well as efforts to promote cooperation between the oil-producing and oil-consuming nations of our world.
A good deal of further international meeting activity took place in 1977. In April of that year, 107 nations held talks in Geneva pertaining to the establishment of a massive fund whose purpose would be the stabilization of commodity prices--especially oil. These talks unfortunately ended in failure. Notwithstanding, the attempts appear to have spawned several smaller, but more successful, efforts to ease the global economic challenges of those years. Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States met in London in May of that year to discuss the recession that was then taking its economic toll around the world. And by August, fourteen nations, including the United States, committed themselves to loan ten billion dollars to the poverty-stricken nations who were suffering most due to the ongoing oil crisis.
As time moved on, production of, and demand for, oil continued to play a major role in world affairs. Conscious of this, the Persian Gulf States of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates met together in 1981 to form the Gulf Cooperation Council.
In 1986, further meetings and negotiations regarding the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade were begun in Punta del Este, Uruguay. These conferences progressed until 1993; when, at a final meeting at Marrakeech, Morocco, 117 countries reached agreement to support a sweeping policy of trade liberalization. International protectionist measures, as well as agricultural subsidies, were reduced or abolished. We are told that this resulted in vastly expanded trade activity throughout the world, and consequent addition of billions of dollars annually to the global economy (one estimate puts it at $274 billion by 2004). But, unfortunately, we are further advised that these benefits basically went to industrial nations (i.e., 65 to 85 percent thereof); while weaker, more backward, nations (e.g., in Africa) would actually lose due to the consequent loss of advantaged access to their export markets.
It should be noted here that this would not happen in a unified world; where there would be no "industrial nations" or "weaker, more backward" nations. Instead, such benefits as should come to pass as a result of any and all newly instituted economic programs would redound to the benefit of everyone.
Also undertaken at this "Uruguay Round" were efforts to formulate a universal code to regulate the new phenomena of multi-mational corporations and foreign direct investment. It was particularly sought to enable Europe to develop such entities, so as to emulate and complement the activities of their American and Japanese counterparts.
Another accomplishment of these Uruguay conferences was the strengthening of intellectual property rights on a worldwide level. In general, this can be considered to be a good thing. But a more unfavorable result was that it gave more power to American and European drug manufacturers to stop similar companies in other, less developed, parts of the world from copying formulae, whereby life-saving medicines would be less available, or unavailable, throughout the world at affordable prices. We are told that, due to this, thousands who could no longer afford the higher prices charged by the American and European companies were "effectively condemned to death." This too could not happen in a unified world, by reason of the fact that a single worldwide economy would preclude the possibility of, or the need for, drastic price differences in different parts of the world.
During these same years, a group of Latin American nations, including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, together with associate members Bolivia and Chile, formed an entity which was called "Mercosur." It comprised an association of these countries, who consented to be bound by a mutually beneficial international trade agreement. Having begun in 1991, subsequent meetings led to an enlargement thereof into a South America Free Trade Area, consisting of the integration of a number of other regional trade pacts into the aforesaid Mercosur agreement and organization.
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