ABSTRACT
Meade's proposal, first dated 25 July 1942, for a ‘commercial union’ to complement Keynes's plan for a ‘clearing union’ was adopted by the Board of Trade later the same year, and subsequently discussed with American officials in Washington by the Law Mission (of which Meade was a member) in September–October 1943. Further discussions in London and Washington beginning in December 1944 led to the ‘Proposals for consideration by an International Conference on Trade and Employment’ published by the US and UK Governments in December 1945. Meade was then a British representative on the Preparatory Commission for the conference, which met in London in October 1946 and Geneva in April 1947 to produce a Draft Charter for an International Trade Organisation. Although the ITO Charter adopted at the UN Conference on Trade and Employment in Havana on 23 March 1948 was not ratified, many of its principles had been incorporated in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiated in Geneva in 1947. (Public Record Office T230/14, 92, 125, 171, 172; Meade Papers 3/2 and Meade Diaries, 1943 and 1944–46; Richard N. Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, London: Oxford University Press, 1956, Chapters VI , VIII , XIV and XVII .)
