The Bretton Woods conference in the 1940s brought global integration and peace, and the conference signified a sign of change in the global arena. The global initiatives of the Bretton Wood conference were to create a trade strategy that could strengthen the global trade relationships between different countries. The Bretton Woods conference brought closer negotiations which enabled countries to establish economic cooperations and create trading blocs that could unify regions from the post-War economic depression (James, 2012). The parity of interconnectedness was evident through the Bretton Woods conference because the conference formed multilateral agencies that could enforce global trade and create participation of foreign investments in different countries (Bordo, 2017). The understanding of economic monetary systems was established through the conference with the Keynesianism system and White's plan to make the US Dollar to become the main currency that was used to support commodities that were brought in the global marketplace (Keynes, 1943; Garber, 1993). The superiority of the US Dollar was  established and  the presence of the US grew bigger as the Keynesian system was not employed and eradicated for a profound system that would promote global trade on a bigger scale (Faudot, 2021). The notion of creating a fixed exchange rate would enable regions to trade efficiently and establish single currencies in trading blocs that could be used to clone free financial markets from regulations and legal boundaries. 

The establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were significant to reshape the international financial structure and strengthen economic performance through the Post-War era. The IMF and WB had control over the monetary policies that would enable policymakers to dictate the financial structure for individual countries. This encouraged these multilateral organisations to impose policies that allowed the IMF and WB to dictate trading plans in less developed countries (Kwagyang et al, 2015). The GATT became prevalent and established its own path to promote global trade but the support of the Bretton Wood systems were not strong enough to encourage countries to trade by agreeing to trade tariffs. The inflation rate soared in the US when the gold parity was devalued against the US Dollar in the mid-1960s and this forced the Bretton Wood system to collapse (Bordo and Eichengreen, 2013). 

The IMF and the WB became powerful in their own rights and these multilateral agencies were still giving out loans and implementing policies that enslaved countries to a dictatorship and authoritarian style ruling. International trading activities became the main drivers for countries to push a notion to the openness of its borders so that imported and exported goods were widely accessible. The process of trading internationally became more prominent due to the concept of globalisation. Globalisation fuelled these multilateral agencies to drive the idea of trade liberalisation and unilateral trade to achieve a common goal which enabled countries to repay their debts and become reliant on the IMF and the World Bank. 

Trading internationally has changed the market structure and it has created a complex dynamic in the marketplace where businesses and countries have become self-regulated even though these countries are regulated by international financial and trading doctrines. The beginning of unilateral trade benefitted regions and placed GATT in a powerful position. The renovigration of the GATT gave them the mandate to form agreements such as the Uruguay Round which gave birth to the WTO (World Trade Organisation)  and its principles would promote free trade subject to low regional tariffs and ensure that trade flow was smooth (WTO, n.d). 

The imperative of global trading schemes became the main agenda for the WTO to push. With mass consumerism and trade liberalisation changes due to globalisation; the implementation of preferential schemes was inevitable and this scheme strengthened the position of the WTO when it came to preferential trading agreements (PTAs). The idea of PTAs was to allow developed countries to impose low or no custom duties on developing or underdeveloped countries. The scheme created an urgency for global trade as the European Union (EU) used this idea to create the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) so that they could benefit from the preferential trade agreements and at the same time, allowing producers from developing countries to import goods into the trading blocs to combat the shortage of food and other commodities (WTO, 2021). 

The urgency of global trade is deeper than the policies created by trading blocs as the empirical evidence (Gray and Slapin, 2012;  Trommer, 2017; Allee et al, 2017) suggested that preferential trade agreements have built relationships between countries and established greater and profound integration through advanced trade agreements established by the WTO. The initiatives imposed by the WTO shows how trade liberalisation has provided a dynamic approach to the openness of international trade which has had detrimental effects on the financial and investment climate (Greenaway and Morrissey, 1994). The replenishing of the WTO principles coupled with the treaties of trading blocs have cemented the narrative of trade and it has helped underdeveloped countries repay their loans to the IMF and the World Bank. The deregulation of finance has exerted pressures on the WTO to make changes to trading that are aligned with their principles. The urgency of global trade is imperative to the contrary and global trade should not have deficiency due to the circulation of global commoditisation.  The free exchange of goods has liberalised the notion of keeping peace and preserving agriculture so that global foods are secured. The ability to remove protectionism in developing countries have strengthened the position of the WTO and it has brought trust which has pushed trade liberalisation. 

To conclude this, the urgency of global trade is significant and the idea of trade liberalisation should not be ignored because global trade has improved food security and made it easier to access commodities such as gas and other natural resources. The establishment of the GATT (WTO) during the Bretton Woods conference shows how policymakers foresee the changes that were going to happen in the global marketplace and saw that global trade was imperative to enhance the financial and economic systems. 

References

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2. WTO (2021). Transparency mechanism for preferential trade arrangements (PTAs). [online] https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/region_e/pta_handbook_on_notifications_e.pdf [accessed 21/05/2022]

3. Faudot, A. (2021). The Keynes Plan and Bretton Woods debates: the early radical criticisms by Balogh, Schumacher and Kalecki, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 45 (4), pp. 751–770. 

4. Kwagyang, G.W., Ghide, B. H., & Harlan, L. A. (2015). Bretton Woods Institutions: Their Evolution and Impacts on the Field of International Economic Law, Journal of Law, Policy and Globalisation, 35, pp. 49-57

5. Bordo, M D (2017). The operation and demise of the Bretton Woods system: 1958 to 1971, NBER, Working Paper No 23189

6. WTO (n.d). The Uruguay Round [online] https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact5_e.htm [accessed 21/05/2022]

7. Garber, P M (1993). The collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime; in M Bordo and B Eichengreen (eds), A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: lessons for International Monetary Reform. University of Chicago Press: Chicago 

8. Keynes, J M (1943). Proposals for an international clearing union; in  K Horsefield et al, The International Monetary Fund 1945-1965: Twenty Years of International Monetary Cooperation, Vol 1 Chronicle. International Monetary Fund: Washington DC 

9. Greenaway, D. and Morrissey, O. (1994). Trade Liberalisation and Economic Growth in Developing Countries; in S. M. Murshed and K. Raffer, eds, Trade Transfers and Development, Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing

10. James, H. (2012) The multiple contexts of Bretton Woods, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 28 (3), pp.411-430

11. Gray, J., Slapin, J.B. (2012). How effective are preferential trade agreements? Ask the experts. The Review of International Organisation, 7, 309–333.

12. Trommer, S. (2017). The WTO in an Era of Preferential Trade Agreements: Thick and Thin Institutions in Global Trade Governance. World Trade Review, 16 (3), 501-526.

13. Allee, T.,  Elsig, M., & Lugg, A. (2017). The Ties between the World Trade Organization and Preferential Trade Agreements: A Textual Analysis, Journal of International Economic Law, 20 (2), 333–363.