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provisions of the Havana Charter. The Geneva Agreement and the subsequent text authenticated at Havana have their origin in the Atlantic Charter of 1941, which stressed the desirability of international co-operation for economic advancement, this objective being again expressed in greater detail in the Lend-Lease Agreement of February, 1942. In furtherance of this ideal the United States Government issued in December, 1945, its " Proposals for an International Trade Organization," which were then considered at a series of three conferences attended by seventeen countries held in London, New York, and Geneva between October, 1946, and August, 1947. At Geneva negotiations for tariff reductions by all countries represented there were completed and embodied in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The Havana Conference, at which fifty-eight countries were represented, met for four months from November, 1947, to March, 1948. An enormous amount of effort, much of it expended by very able statesmen, administrators, and economists, is represented in these agreements. No one, and least of all any delegate at the Havana Conference, would claim that the world has in these documents provided the cure for all its present economic ills, which will require other more dynamic means to ensure speedy recovery. Nevertheless, the operation of the provisions of the Havana Charter and a faithful observance of its principles will be an important step towards future avoidance of those severe depressions and economic hardships largely brought about and always increased by unilateral restrictive measures, which so often occurred in the past and especially in the period between the two world wars. The major value of the Havana Charter will develop only over a period of years. The true significance of Havana, as I see it, lies in the fact that it concluded a series of conferences which have produced the broadest international economic agreement of all time, combining satisfactorily all shades of national economic outlook and a recognition of the needs of countries in all stages of economic development. International Situation The pattern of international trade since the war has brought clearly into view the extent of the grave economic dislocation arising from the severe physical destruction and social distress of six years of world-wide conflict. Not all countries suffered in the same way or to the same extent. Balances of trade with individual countries which had previously been favourable became unfavourable, pre-war markets disappeared with lowered standards of living, and pre-war sources of supply were disrupted. This grave diversion of trade from the pre-war pattern within Europe and the resulting uncertainty as to the future has accentuated balance-of-payments problems.

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