Bretton Woods Institutions Overview

Study Notes

The Brettonwoods Institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), were established after World War II to rebuild and stabilize the global economy.
Their focus was on promoting free trade and reducing protectionist policies.
The IMF was designed to manage the international monetary system, providing loans to countries facing financial difficulties.
The World Bank initially focused on post-war reconstruction but later expanded its role to provide loans for development projects.
The institutions were created by the USA to address the issue of overproduction and promote American exports.
Both the IMF and WB required loan recipients to adopt "free" foreign exchange and import policies, essentially eliminating any barriers to trade.
These policies promoted liberalization and benefited transnational corporations.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is the precursor to the World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995.
The WTO promotes free trade by setting rules for international commerce and enforcing trade agreements.
Despite the WTO's focus on removing trade barriers, agriculture subsidies in developed nations remain high.
The decline in quantitative restrictions and tariffs has allowed agribusiness transnational corporations to dump commodities on the global market.

The WTO serves as a forum for trade liberalization and a judge on those who violate its rules.
It has a dispute settlement mechanism that gives it considerable power to enforce trade agreements.
The WTO's policies have benefited transnational corporations by allowing them to operate without significant trade barriers.
The WTO's focus on liberalization has contributed to the growth of agribusiness, but at the expense of smaller producers.
The WTO can be seen as a key actor in economic globalization, primarily benefiting developed nations at the expense of developing countries.