GATT organized eight cycles in which countries exchanged tariff concessions and reduced tariffs. The summit almost resulted in a third organization. This should be the very ambitious International Trade Organization (ITO). The 50 countries that started negotiations wanted an agency within the United Nations to create rules, not only for trade, but also for jobs, agreements on raw materials, trade practices, foreign direct investment and services. The ITO charter was adopted in March 1948, but the U.S. Congress and a few other countries refused to ratify it. In 1950, the Truman administration declared defeat and completed the ITO. Unlike the ITO charter, the GATT did not need congressional approval. Technically, the GATT was a 1934 agreement, in accordance with the provisions of the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act. The euro must contribute to the construction of a single market by facilitating the movement of citizens and goods, ironing out exchange rate problems, creating price transparency, creating a single price market, stabilizing prices, keeping interest rates low and providing a currency that is used internationally and protected from shocks by the large volume of domestic trade within the euro area.
It is also designed as a political symbol of integration. The euro and the monetary policy of those who have adopted it in agreement with the EU are subject to the control of the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB is the central bank of the euro area and therefore controls monetary policy in this area with a programme of maintaining price stability. It is at the heart of the European Central Bank System, which includes all national central banks in the EU and is controlled by its General Council, composed of the ECB President, appointed by the European Council, the Vice-President of the ECB and the governors of the national central banks of the 27 EU Member States. Monetary union has been rocked by the European sovereign debt crisis since 2009. The online rate analysis provides detailed reports on tariff lines as well as analytical reports at higher aggregation levels. The GATT also allows free trade zones such as the European Free Trade Area, which consists mainly of Scandinavian countries. Members of free trade agreements remove tariffs on trade with each other, while maintaining autonomy in setting tariffs with non-members. The online rate analysis is the most versatile and detailed.
Rates are available at the tariff line level (eight digits or more of the harmonized system codes). At this level of detail, country-to-country comparisons are not always possible, as countries do not always use the same code numbers to define products. The GATT was created to create rules to end or limit the most costly and undesirable features of the pre-war period, namely quantitative barriers to trade such as trade controls and quotas. The agreement also provided for a system for resolving trade disputes between nations and the framework allowed for a series of multilateral negotiations on the removal of customs barriers. The GATT was considered a major success in the post-war years. In the end, tariffs fell by 35%, with the exception of textiles, chemicals, steel and other sensitive products; In addition to a 15% to 18% reduction in tariffs on agricultural and food products. In addition, the chemical negotiations resulted in an interim agreement on the abolition of the US selling price (ASP).