World trade organization

1. What is the WTO?
 The World Trade Organization (WTO) is
an international organization designed by its
founders to supervise and liberalize
international trade.
 The organization officially commenced on
January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech
Agreement, replacing the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
which commenced in 1947.

2. What is the WTO?
 The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the
global international organization dealing with
the rules of trade between nations.
 At its heart are the WTO agreements,
negotiated and signed by the bulk of the
world’s trading nations and ratified in their
parliaments.

3. WTOWTO
BRIEF HISTORY
The WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established after
World War II in the wake of other new multilateral
institutions dedicated to international economic
cooperation - notably the Bretton Woods institutions
known as the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund.

4. WTOWTO
BRIEF HISTORY
A comparable international institution for trade, named
the International Trade Organization was successfully
negotiated.
The ITO was to be a United Nations specialized agency
and would address not only trade barriers but other issues
indirectly related to trade, including employment,
investment, restrictive business practices, and commodity
agreements.
But the ITO treaty was not approved by the United States
and a few other signatories and never went into effect.

5. WTOWTO
BRIEF HISTORY
In the absence of an international organization for
trade, the GATT would over the years "transform
itself" into a de facto international organization.
The GATT was the only multilateral instrument
governing international trade from 1948 until the
WTO was established in 1995.

6. Important Functions of WTO
 It oversees the implementation, administration and operation of
the covered agreements.
 It provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes.
 Additionally, it is the WTO's duty to review and propagate the
national trade policies, and to ensure the coherence and
transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global
economic policy-making.
 Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-
developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to
WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and
training.[
 The WTO is also a center of economic research and analysis:
regular assessments of the global trade picture in its annual
publications and research reports on specific topics are produced
by the organization.
 Finally, the WTO cooperates closely with the two other
components of the Bretton Woods system, the IMF and the World
Bank.

7. THE ORGANIZATION
 THE OBJECTIVES:
 The WTO’s overriding objective is to help trade flow
smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably.
 It does this by:
 Administering trade agreements
 Acting as a forum for trade negotiations
 Settling trade disputes
 Reviewing national trade policies
 Assisting developing countries in trade policy issues, through
technical assistance and training programmes
 Cooperating with other international organizations

8. Structure
The WTO has 164 members, accounting for over 97% of world trade.
Decisions are made by the entire membership.
This is typically by consensus. A majority vote is also possible but it has
never been used in the WTO, and was extremely rare under the WTO’s
predecessor, GATT.
The WTO’s agreements have been ratified in all members’ parliaments.

9. Structure
The WTO’s top level decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference
which meets at least once every two years.
Below this is the General Council (normally ambassadors and heads of
delegation in Geneva, but sometimes officials sent from members’ capitals)
which meets several times a year in the Geneva headquarters.
The General Council also meets as the Trade Policy Review Body and the
Dispute Settlement Body.
At the next level, the Goods Council, Services Council and Intellectual
Property (TRIPS) Council report to the General Council.
Numerous specialized committees, working groups and working parties
deal with the individual agreements and other areas such as the environment,
development, membership applications and regional trade agreements.

10. Secretariat
 The WTO Secretariat, based in Geneva, has
around 625 staff and is headed by a director-
general.
 Its annual budget is roughly 189 million Swiss
francs.
 It does not have branch offices outside Geneva.
 Since decisions are taken by the members
themselves, the Secretariat does not have the
decision-making role that other international
bureaucracies are given.

11. Principles of the trading
system
 Five principles are of particular importance in understanding
both the pre-1994 GATT and the WTO.
 Non-Discrimination.
 It has two major components: the most favoured nation
(MFN) rule, and the national treatment policy.
 The MFN rule requires that a WTO member must apply the
same conditions on all trade with other WTO members.
 National treatment means that imported goods should be
treated no less favorably than domestically-produced goods
(at least after the foreign goods have entered the market)
and was introduced to tackle non-tariff barriers to trade
(e.g. technical standards, security standards et al.
discriminating against imported goods).