by John Maynard Keynes, was to establish the ITO and a financial institution called the International Clearing Union (ICU), and an international currency; the bancor. The Havana Charter institutions were to stabilize trade by encouraging nations to "net zero", with trade surplus and trade deficit both discouraged. This negative feedback was to be accomplished by allowing nations overdraft equal to half the average value of the country's trade over the preceding five years, with interest charged on both surplus and deficit. Failure in United States Congress The Charter never came into force, in part because in 1950 the United States government announced that it would not submit the treaty to the United States Senate for ratification. While repeatedly submitted to the US Congress, the charter was never approved. The most usual argument against the new organization was that it would be involved into internal economic issues. On December 6, 1950 President Truman announced that he would no longer seek Congressional approval of the ITO Charter. Because of the American rejection of the Charter, no other state ratified the treaty. Elements of the Charter would later become part of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Individual trade agreements and World Trade Organization In the absence of an international organization for trade, countries turned, from the early 1950s, to the only existing multilateral international institution for trade, the GATT 1947, to handle problems concerning their trade relations. Therefore, the GATT would over the years "transform itself" into a de facto international organization. It was contemplated that the GATT would be applied for several years until the ITO came into force. However, since the ITO was never brought into being, the GATT gradually became the focus for international governmental cooperation on trade matters. Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under GATT before the eighth round—the Uruguay Round—concluded in 1994 with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the GATT's replacement. The GATT principles and agreements were adopted by the WTO, which was charged with administering and extending them. See also Bretton Woods system Notes References External links Havana Charter Text of the Havana Charter - WTO official website Pages 5 and 6 of an economics paper Pages two and three of a paper concerning agricultural trade Page 1 The WTO: An Historical, Legal, and Organizational Overview Global Fracture a book by Michael Hudson that insightfully documents how developing countries have