U.S. Wins WTO Case to destroy India's Solar Power Industry

[pampango]

19. The real point is that prior to FDR, none of these international institutions existed. Under Herbert

Hoover, there were none. FDR changed that. And many on the right (particularly Trump who wants to go back to the unilateral tariffs of the Hoover era) want to go back to the pre-FDR world.

The IMF, World Bank and GATT (part of the ITO) were proposed in FDR's Bretton Woods conference. Others did develop later either evolving from these FDR institutions or from the same internationalism that he fostered.

WTO and GATT are more recent.

GATT was actually a small part of the ITO proposed by FDR at Bretton Woods. ITO negotiations took so long that by the time it was signed, republicans were strong enough in congress to refuse to ratify it. GATT had been just a small, transitional part of the ITO to govern trade until the ITO came into existence. When congress rejected the ITO, Truman authorized GATT by executive order in 1948. So we can 'blame' Truman for GATT since FDR's ITO never saw the light of day.

I would argue that Bretton Woods created the foundation for the entire neo-liberal project ...

Bretton Woods certainly represented FDR's rejection of the isolationism of the 1920's that he inherited. All the new institutions represented an effort to have countries act cooperatively to govern how the world interacts rather than have each country act independently and, often, at cross purposes.

The institutions that came out of FDR's Bretton Woods diminished the role of what he saw as excessive nationalism (and, I suppose, national sovereignty) in the 1920's and 30's and which he partially blamed for the Depression and war in favor of more international approach.

The historical cycle from nationalism to internationalism back to nationalism and so on has happened before in history. I think we agree that we are headed to a new period of enhanced nationalism. The cycle goes on.