These agreements have not been so successful. All but a few of the agreements were able to achieve their objectives for the following reasons: in the post-war period there were four international sugar agreements. The first agreement entered into force in January 1954 and the second in 1959. The latter`s economic arrangements were suspended in 1962 after the 1960 Cuban Missile Crisis, although the remaining provisions were extended until 1968. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), founded in 1960, is a special case. It has so far indisputably violated the provisions of the Havana Charter, which require consumer representation. It uses a process of collective bargaining – not with importing countries, but with producers and marketing companies largely controlled by citizens of advanced industrialized countries, especially the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France. Perhaps the time has come for a truly international oil company. An internal system of proration in the United States on behalf of domestic producer groups has already and inevitably led to a system of import controls, and a strong case can be made for the application of import quotas through a multilateral instrument, not a unilateral one. Germany, Italy and Japan, for example, have very little direct control over oil supply, but are large consumers and importers. The fact that oil-exporting countries include relatively wealthy members of the less developed world, while the poorer members are heavily dependent on oil imports, also suggests some reluctance to exercise OPEC`s bargaining power. Controlling the market price of individual commodities has undesirable side effects, both politically and economically. The severity of the export quotas imposed under the Tin Agreement from December 1957 to September 1960 appears to have had a long-term impact on production capacity; When restrictions on tin export were eased, production could not be revived at the same time as a strong recovery in consumption and, therefore, this product is a classic example of the irreversible supply curve.
A possible lesson from the Cuban experience under Fidel Castro is that there is a subtle and indirect relationship between economic forms of market control and a certain degree of political tyranny. Such a philosophy was shared by supporters of the Anti-Corn-Law League in nineteenth-century England, who based their case on an alleged link between freer trade and world peace. The International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) is often referred to as a « hybrid » agreement because it combines a traditional commodity trade agreement with goals that include the sustainable management of tropical forests. .
