Why did the proposed International Trade Organization never take effect?

The proposed International Trade Organization (ITO) was intended to be a key pillar of post-World War II economic reconstruction, alongside the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Although a draft charter—the Havana Charter—was concluded in 1948 to establish comprehensive rules for trade, investment, and employment practices, the organization never took effect primarily because the United States failed to ratify the agreement.1

Because the ITO failed to emerge, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which had been negotiated as a provisional interim arrangement, became the primary governing body for international trade for nearly five decades. The GATT system eventually evolved into a de facto global trade organization until it was formally replaced by the World Trade Organization in 1995.123