 | Author's Name: Anthony Battaini Date: Mon 14 Apr 2025 |
Global Trade
The objects of Rotary include the “advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.” This suggests the importance of adopting generally agreed, rules-based processes to ensure global cooperation.
The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference built the post-World War II financial system, which included the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. GATT operated and proved remarkably successful in liberalising world trade over the next five decades. In 1995 the World Trade Organisation (WTO) became GATT’s successor.
The last time the U.S. raised tariffs dramatically was 1930. The Smoot-Hawley tariff law accelerated the breakdown of international commerce and cooperation, deepening the world’s slide into depression.
Our rules-based global trading system is now becoming a web of bilateral deals. Amid the chaos lies an opportunity: the chance to make long-overdue reforms that could modernise and revitalise global trade governance. As Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
We should seize the moment to rebuild confidence in the WTO, reaffirm trade co-operation over confrontation, reform and modernise trade protocols and reassure markets that stability, not turmoil, is the way ahead. This is the Rotary legacy, as a global organisation pivotal in chartering the UN and championing rules-based cooperation between nations.
For fellowship forged in service to others, and friendships formed by good company shared over a fine meal, we give thanks.
Tony Battaini
Thank you to Tony Battaini for providing this reflection on 16 April 25
