Abstract
The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (RTAA) of 1945 revolutionized U.S. trade policy and global economic order. Based upon a new conception of the United States' national trade interest and role in world economic affairs, the RTAA of 1945 initiated the nation's postwar drive to construct an open world trading system. Yet despite its epoch‐making character, the history of this statute has not been subjected to sustained analysis. Building upon the three dominant political science explanations for U.S. trade politics and policy formation—system, society, and state—this study traces the origins of the RTAA of 1945 to the impact of World War II on the formulation and enactment of this statute at the domestic level. It argues that it is impossible to explain the genesis of the RTAA of 1945 absent a consideration of the influence of World War II on the pattern of domestic politics that produced it.
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