The World Trade Organization (WTO) plays an important role in facilitating international trade through principles like non-discrimination, transparency, and simplification of customs procedures. Trade facilitation aims to reduce obstacles and red tape, which can significantly cut trade costs. The WTO also provides a forum for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute settlement mechanism to resolve trade conflicts between members. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) works to stabilize the global financial system and support members' economic growth through monitoring policies, providing loans, and issuing Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as an international reserve asset.

1. LECTURE 4
Institutions and Regulatory Framework

2. Role of World Trade
Organization
 Trade allows a division of labour between countries. It allows resources
to be used more efficiently and effectively for production. But the WTO’s
trading system offers more than that. It helps to increase productivity
and to cut costs even more because of important principles enshrined in
the system, designed to make life simpler and clearer.
 Non-discrimination is one of the key principles of the WTO’s trading
system.
 Transparency (clear information about policies, rules and regulations)
 Increased certainty about trading conditions (commitments to lower
trade barriers and to increase other countries’ access to one’s
markets are legally binding)
 Simplification and standardization of customs procedure, removal of
red tape, centralized databases of information, and other measures
to simplify trade, known as “trade facilitation”.
 Together, they make trading simpler, cutting companies’ costs. That,
in turn, means more jobs and better goods and services for
consumers.
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 2

3. Trade Facilitation
 Trade facilitation has become an important subject in the
Doha Round negotiations. Red tape and other obstacles are
like a tax on trade.
 The saving from streamlining procedures could be 2% –15%
of the value of the goods traded, according to estimates by
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD).
 The Peterson Institute for International Economics
estimates that it could add $117.8 billion to the world
economy (global GDP).
 TheWorld Bank says that for every dollar of assistance
provided to support trade facilitation reform in developing
countries, there is a return of up to $70 in economic
benefits.
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 3

4. Trade Facilitation
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 4

5. Essentials for International
Trade
 International trade is defined as a contract where two
parties (These parties may operate their business in
different countries trading in goods and services) enters
into the transaction of buying and selling of goods and
services irrespective of national boundaries.This involves
the import and export trade where one country either sells
goods or service to other country or buys goods and service
from other country. Followings are the five essentials for
such international trades –
 The contract of sale of goods.
 The contract of carriage of goods.
 The contract of insurance for the goods.
 The compliance with exports and imports authorities in terms of
formalities and documentation required.
 The mechanism for payment set up by the buyer.
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 5

6. Responsibilities of WTO
 TheWorldTrade Organization is the organization which was set
up out of the Uruguay Round of General Agreement onTariffs
andTrade negotiations in 1995 and which became the successor
to and replacement of the General Agreement onTariffs and
Trade [GATT] and it inter alia regulates trade and tariffs
worldwide and settles trade disputes amongst members.
 The role ofWTO in international trade is as stipulated in the
Agreement establishing it and includes:
 Facilitating the implementation, administration and operation and
furthering the objectives of the agreement establishing it and other
MultilateralTrade Agreements and providing the framework for the
implementation, administration and operation of the PluralityTrade
Agreements. (Article III of the Agreement establishingWTO)
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 6

7. Responsibilities of WTO
 Providing the forum for negotiations among its
Members concerning their multilateral trade relations
in matters dealt with under the agreements in the
Annexes to the Agreement setting it up and for the
results of such negotiations as may be decided by the
Ministerial Conference. (Article III of the Agreement
establishing WTO)
 Administering the Understanding on Rules and
Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes or
the Dispute Settlement Understanding which is Annex
2 to the agreement setting it up. (Article III of the
Agreement establishing WTO)
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 7

8. Responsibilities of WTO
 Administering theTrade Policy Review Mechanism
in Annex 3 of the agreement setting it up. (Article
III of the Agreement establishingWTO)
 Cooperating as appropriate with the International
Monetary Fund and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development [a.k.a. the
World Bank] with a view to achieving greater
coherence in global economic policy making.
(Article III of the Agreement establishingWTO)
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 8

9. WTO Charter
 TheWTO has a charter for a MultilateralTrade
Organization [MTO] aimed at providing an
institutional framework within which the results
of the Uruguay Round could operate.
 Within the MTO was established a new dispute
settlement mechanism and aTrade Policy
Review Mechanism [TPRM].
 There was a framework which, provided annexes
of the more important areas such as the General
Agreement onTrade in Services [GATS] andThe
Agreement onTrade Related Intellectual
Property [TRIPS] which were a part of theText.
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 9

10. Ultimate Goal of WTO
 The ultimate goal of the multilateral institution
of GATT and WTO is the provision of free global
trade and economic relationship among
members and that GATT is designed to achieve
free trade and to improve market access by-
1. Having all protection take the form of tariffs;
2. Holding multilateral negotiation at which those
tariffs are lowered and bound;
3. Ensuring that these agreements are implemented by
requiring that any increase in a bound tariff must be
compensated by the reduction of another;
4. Providing a mechanism by which signatories can
settle disputes.
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 10

11. IMF
 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an
intergovernmental organization that oversees the global
financial system by monitoring the macroeconomic policies
of its member countries, in particular those with an impact
on exchange rate and the balance of payments.
 Its objectives are to stabilize international exchange rates
and facilitate development through the encouragement of
liberalizing economic policies in other countries as a
condition of loans, debt relief, and aid.
 It also offers loans with varying levels of conditionality,
mainly to poorer countries. Its headquarters is in
Washington, D.C.

12. IMF
 The International Monetary Fund was conceived in July 1944
originally with 45 members and came into existence in December
1945 when 29 countries signed the agreement, with a goal to
stabilize exchange rates and assist the reconstruction of the
world’s international payment system.
 Countries contributed to a pool which could be borrowed from,
on a temporary basis, by countries with payment imbalances.
 The IMF was important when it was first created because it
helped the world stabilize the economic system.The IMF works
to improve the economies of its member countries.
 The IMF describes itself as “an organization of 187 countries (as
of July 2010), working to foster global monetary cooperation,
secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote
high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce
poverty.”

14. The IMF’s responsibilities
 The IMF's primary purpose is to ensure the stability
of the international monetary system—the system
of exchange rates and international payments that
enables countries (and their citizens) to transact with
one other.
 This system is essential for promoting sustainable
economic growth, increasing living standards, and
reducing poverty.
 Following the recent global crisis, the Fund has been
clarifying and updating its mandate to cover the full
range of macroeconomic and financial sector issues
that bear on global stability.

15. Surveillance
 To maintain stability and prevent crises in the international
monetary system, the IMF reviews country policies, as well as
national, regional, and global economic and financial
developments through a formal system known as surveillance.
 Under the surveillance framework, the IMF provides advice to its
187 member countries, encouraging policies that foster economic
stability, reduce vulnerability to economic and financial crises,
and raise living standards.
 It provides regular assessment of global prospects in itsWorld
Economic Outlook, financial markets in its Global Financial
Stability Report, and public finance developments in its Fiscal
Monitor, and publishes a series of regional economic outlooks.
The Fund’s Executive Board has been considering a range of
options to enhance multilateral, financial, and bilateral
surveillance, and better integrate the three.

16. Financial assistance
 IMF financing provides member countries the
breathing room they need to correct balance of
payments problems.
 A policy program supported by IMF financing is
designed by the national authorities in close
cooperation with the IMF, and continued financial
support is conditioned on effective implementation
of this program.
 In an early response to the recent global economic
crisis, the IMF strengthened its lending capacity and
approved a major overhaul of the mechanisms for
providing financial support in April 2009, with further
reforms adopted in August 2010.

17. SDRs
 The IMF issues an international reserve asset
known as Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) that can
supplement the official reserves of member
countries.Two allocations in August and
September 2009 increased the outstanding
stock of SDRs almost ten-fold to total about SDR
204 billion (US$308 billion). Members can also
voluntarily exchange SDRs for currencies among
themselves. In a recent paper, IMF staff explore
options to enhance the role of the SDR to
promote international monetary stability.

18. Special Drawing Rights
(SDRs)
 The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the
IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries' official
reserves. Its value is based on a basket of four key
international currencies, and SDRs can be exchanged for
freely usable currencies.With a general SDR allocation
that took effect onAugust 28 and a special allocation on
September 9, 2009, the amount of SDRs increased from
SDR 21.4 billion to SDR 204 billion (equivalent to about
$324.1 billion, converted using the rate of March 31,
2011).

19. Technical assistance
 The IMF offers technical assistance and
training to help member countries strengthen
their capacity to design and implement
effective policies.Technical assistance is
offered in several areas, including tax policy
and administration, expenditure
management, monetary and exchange rate
policies, banking and financial system
supervision and regulation, legislative
frameworks, and statistics.

20. Members' quotas and voting power, and board of governors
(Note: Voting shares before the changes made on October,
2010)
IMF member country
Quota: millions
of SDRs
Quota:
percentage of
Governor Alternative Governor
Votes:
number
Votes: percentage of
total
United States 37,149.30 17.09
Timothy
Geithner Ben Bernanke 371,743 16.74
Japan 13,312.80 6.12 Yoshihiko Noda Masaaki Shirakawa 133,378 6.01
Germany 13,008.20 5.98 Jens Weidmann Wolfgang Schäuble 130,332 5.87
France 10,738.50 4.94 Christine Lagarde Christian Noyer 107,635 4.85
United Kingdom 10,738.50 4.94 George Osborne Sir Mervyn King 107,635 4.85
China 8,090.10 4.42 Zhou Xiaochuan Yi Gang 81,151 3.65
Italy 7,055.50 3.24 Giulio Tremonti Mario Draghi 70,805 3.19
Saudi Arabia 6,985.50 3.21
Ibrahim A. Al-
Assaf Hamad Al-Sayari 70,105 3.16
Canada 6,369.20 2.93 Jim Flaherty Mark Carney 63,942 2.88
Russia 5,945.40 2.73 Aleksei Kudrin Sergey Ignatyev 59,704 2.69
India 5,898.20 2.44
Pranab
Mukherjee Duvvuri Subbarao 58,832 2.34
Netherlands 5,162.40 2.37 Nout Wellink L.B.J. van Geest 51,874 2.34
Belgium 4,605.20 2.12 Guy Quaden Jean-Pierre Arnoldi 46,302 2.08
Switzerland 3,458.50 1.59 Jean-Pierre Roth
Eveline Widmer-
Schlumpf 34,835 1.57
Australia 3,236.40 1.49 Wayne Swan Martin Parkinson 32,614 1.47
Mexico 3,152.80 1.45 Agustín Carstens Guillermo Ortiz 31,778 1.43
Spain 3,048.90 1.4 Elena Salgado
Miguel Fernández
Ordóñez 30,739 1.38
Brazil 3,036.10 1.4 Guido Mantega Alexandre Tombini 30,611 1.38
South Korea 2,927.30 1.35 Okyu Kwon Seong Tae Lee 29,523 1.33
Venezuela 2,659.10 1.22
Gastón Parra
Luzardo
Rodrigo Cabeza
Morales 26,841 1.21
remaining 166
countries 62,593.80 28.79 respective respective 667,438 30.05

21. Resources
 The IMF’s resources are provided by its member countries,
primarily through payment of quotas, which broadly reflect
each country’s economic size. At the April 2009 G-20 Summit,
world leaders pledged to support a tripling of the IMF's
lending resources from about US$250 billion to US$750 billion.
To deliver on this pledge, the current and new participants in
the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) agreed to expand the
NAB to about US$550 billion, which was approved by the
Executive Board of the IMF on April 12, 2010. When concluding
the 14th General Review of Quotas in December 2010,
Governors agreed to double the IMF’s quota resources to
approximately US$745 billion and a major realignment of
quota shares among members. When the quota increase
becomes effective, there will be a corresponding rollback in
NAB resources.

22. Resources
 Historically, the annual expenses of running the Fund
have been met mainly by interest receipts on
outstanding loans, but the membership recently agreed
to adopt a new income model based on a range of
revenue sources better suited to the diverse activities of
the Fund.
7/14/2013Institutional Framework Lecture 4 22

23. Governance and organization
 The IMF is accountable to the governments of its
member countries. At the top of its
organizational structure is the Board of
Governors, which consists of one Governor and
one Alternate Governor from each member
country.The Board of Governors meets once
each year at the IMF-World Bank Annual
Meetings.Twenty-four of the Governors sit on
the International Monetary and Finance
Committee (IMFC) and meet at least twice each
year.

24. Governance and organization
 The day-to-day work of the IMF is conducted by its
24-member Executive Board, which represents the
entire membership; this work is guided by the IMFC
and supported by the IMF’s professional staff. In
reforms approved by the Governors in December
2010, the Articles of Agreement will be amended so
that the Executive Board will consist solely of
elected Directors, doing away with the practice of
some member countries appointing their
representatives.The Managing Director is Head of
IMF staff and Chairman of the Executive Board, and
is assisted by three Deputy Managing Directors.

25. The Role of the World Bank
 The official name for the World Bank is the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
 The bank's initial mission was to help finance the building
of Europe's economy by providing low-interest loans.
 As it turned out, the World Bank was overshadowed in
this role by the Marshall Plan, under which the United
States lent money directly to European nations to help
them rebuild. So the bank turned its attention to
"development" and began lending money to the nations
of theThird World. In the 1950s, the bank concentrated
on public-sector projects.
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