All about WHO

2. COURSE : COMMUNICATION SKILLS
TOPIC : WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
SUBMITTED BY : DHANANJAY S
1st year B-TECH
SUBMITTED TO:
DR,NAGARAJU Y

3. WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATION
STRUCTURE AND FEATURES

4. INTRODUCTION
 The World Trade Organization (WTO) is
an intergovernmental organization that is concerned
with the regulation of international trade between
nations. The WTO officially commenced on 1
January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement,
signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT),
which commenced in 1948

5. The WTO prohibits discrimination
between trading partners, but provides
exceptions for environmental protection,
national security, and other important
goals,Trade-related disputes are
resolved by independent judges at the
WTO through a dispute
resolution process.

6.  FACT FILE OF WTO
 Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Established: 1 January 1995
Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94)
Membership: members representing 98 per cent of world trade
Budget: 197 million Swiss francs for 2018
Secretariat staff: 625
Head: Roberto Azevêdo (Director-General)

8. SALIENT FEATURES OF WTO
 Unlike the GATT, it is a legal entity.
 ii. Unlike the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank B ) it is
not an agent of the United nations
 Unlike the IMF and the World Bank, there is no weighted voting, but all the
WTO members have equal rights.
 Unlike the GATT, the agreements under the WTO are permanent and binding
to the member countries
 Unlike the GATT, the WTO dispute settlement system is based not on dilatory
but automatic mechanism. It is also quicker and binding on the members. As
such, the WTO is a powerful body

9.  Unlike the GATT, the WTOs approach is rule- based and time-bound.
 Unlike the GATT, the WTOs have a wider coverage. It covers trade in goods as
well as services.
 Unlike the GATT, the WTOs have a focus on trade-related aspects of intellectual
property rights and several other issues of agreements.
 Above all, the WTO is a huge organisational body with a large secretariat.

10.  The major functions of the WTO are as
follows:
 1. To lay-down a substantive code of conduct aiming at
reducing trade barriers including tariffs and eliminating
discrimination in international trade relations.
 2. To provide the institutional framework for the
administration of the substantive code which encompasses a
spectrum of norms governing the conduct of member
countries in the arena of global trade.
 To provide an integrated structure of the administration,
thus, to facilitate the implementation, administration and
fulfillment of the objectives of the WTO Agreement and other
Multilateral Trade Agreements.

11.  To ensure the implementation of the substantive code.
 5. To act as a forum for the negotiation of further trade
liberalisation.
 6. To cooperate with the IMF and WB and its associates for
establishing a coherence in trade policy-making.
 7. To settle the trade-related

12. STRUCTURE OF WTO
 The structure of the WTO is dominated by its highest authority, the
Ministerial Conference, composed of representatives of all WTO
members, which is required to meet at least every two years and which
can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade
agreements.
 The WTO has 164 members and 23 observer governments. Liberia became the
163rd member on 14 July 2016, and Afghanistan became the 164thmember on 29 July
2016. In addition to states, the European Union, and each EU country in its own right, is
a member.

13.  INDIA is a member of WTO 1st January 1995 and a member
of GAAT SINCE 8th july 1948.
 The 8 most important trading nations who aren’t WTO
member
 IRAN
 ALGERIA
 SUDAN
 BELARUS
 SERBIA
 TURKMENISTAN
 AZERBAIZAN
 BOSONIA AND HERZIGOVINA

15. MINISTER CONFERENCE
 The Ministerial Conference, which is attended by trade
ministers and other senior officials from the organization’s
164 members, is the highest decision-making body of the
WTO. Under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the
WTO, the Ministerial Conference is to meet at least once
every two years. The last Ministerial Conference took place
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2017.
 World Trade Organization (WTO) members have agreed that
the organization’s Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) will
take place in June 2020 in Kazakhstan, which joined the
WTO in 2015.

16. 1.DISPUTE SETTLEMENT BODY
 The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) makes decisions
on trade disputes between governments that are
adjudicated by the Organization.


17.  Once it has decided on the case, i.e., whether the complaint
had been shown to be right or wrong, the DSB may direct the
'losing' Member to take action to bring its laws, regulations or
policies into conformity with the WTO Agreements. This is the
only direction that emerges from a WTO dispute. There is no
concept of "punishment" or even restitution. The DSB will
give the losing party a "reasonable period of time" in which to
restore the conformity of its laws etc.

18. 2.GENARAL COUNCIL
 The General Council is the WTO’s highest-level decision-making
body in Geneva, meeting regularly to carry out the functions of
the WTO. It has representatives (usually ambassadors or
equivalent) from all member governments and has the authority
to act on behalf of the ministerial conference which only meets
about every two years.
 The General Council also meets, under different rules, as
the Dispute Settlement Body and as the Trade Policy Review.
 The current chair is Ambassador Sunanta KANGVALKULKIJ
(Thailand).

19. 3.TRADE POLCY REVIEW BODY
 The Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB) is a subsidiary body of the General
Council created by the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO to
administer the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). The TPRM offers
a forum for Members to shed light on the trade policies of the country
under review from a multilateral perspective

20. A.GOODS COUNCIL
 The Goods Council has 10 committees dealing with specific
subjects (such as agriculture, market access, subsidies, anti-
dumping measures and so on). Again, these committees
consist of all member countries.
 Also reporting to the Goods Council are a working party on
state trading enterprises, and the Information Technology
Agreement (ITA) Committee.
 The current chair is Ambassador José Luís CANCELA
GÓMEZ (Uruguay).

21. B . INTTELECTUAL PROPERTY COUNCIL
 The WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), negotiated during the
1986-94 Uruguay Round, introduced intellectual property
rules into the multilateral trading system for the first time.
 Intellectual property" refers to creations of the mind. These
creations can take many different forms, such as artistic
expressions, signs, symbols and names used in commerce,
designs and inventions. Governments grant creators the
right to prevent others from using their inventions, designs or
other creations — and to use that right to negotiate payment
in return for others using them. These are “intellectual
property rights

22. C.SERVICES COUNCIL
 The Council for Trade in Services operates under the
guidance of the General Council and is responsible for
facilitating the operation of the General Agreement on Trade
in Services (GATS) and for furthering its objectives. It is open
to all WTO members, and can create subsidiary bodies as
required. Presently, the Council oversees the work of four
such subsidiary bodies: the Committee on Trade in Financial
Services, the Committee on Specific Commitments, the
Working Party on Domestic Regulation and the Working
Party on GATS Rules. The current chair is Ambassador Geert
MUYLLE (Belgium).

23. D. COMMITTEE ON TRADE DOVELPMENT
 The Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) serves
as a focal point for the consideration and coordination of
work on development in the WTO. It considers a broad
range of issues relating to the trade of developing countries
 The CTD is mandated to provide guidelines for
the technical assistance activities of the WTO and to review
periodically these activities. The WTO's biennial technical
assistance and training plan is approved by the Committee
before it is implemented.
 The current chair is Ambassador Chad BLACKMAN
(Barbados) .

24. THANK
YOU