...and whatever was considered to have a bearing on the development of international trade, and was based on policies of non-discrimination and tariff reductions. GATT has been expanded and updated through a series of multi-year conferences. The most famous have been the Kennedy Round (1963-1967), the Tokyo Round (1973-1979), and the Uruguay Round (1986-1994). The Uruguay Round ended with the decision to dissolve GATT and establish the more powerful and more institutionalised World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The WTO replaced GATT as an international organization, but the General Agreement still exists as the WTO’s umbrella treaty for trade in goods. Trade lawyers distinguish between the GATT 1994, the updated agreement, and the GATT 1947, the original agreement which is still the heart of GATT 1994. Introduction The WTO has nearly 150 members, accounting for over 97% of world trade. Around 30 others are negotiating membership. By definition, the World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the rules of trade between nations at a global or...
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...Introduction The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established January 1, 1995. Before WTO’s inception it was known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). However, GATT was not treaty, therefore “the provisions of GATT were binding only insofar as they are not inconsistent with a nation’s existing legislation” (Aaronson, n.d.). Many proponents of labor sometimes consider the WTO a very controversial organization. Many labor advocates feel that free trade has a negative impact on employment and the economy here in the United States. According the WTO website, “The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only 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. Mission and Goal The mission of the WTO is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. What does all that really mean in plain English, the main function of the WTO is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. Structure and Architecture The WTO is comprised of several different councils and committees that make up its structure. Here are a list of the councils, and committees along with some of the responsibilities of each unit. The descriptions below are courtesy of 3.1 Structure of the World Trade Organization, Handbook. * The Ministerial Conference...
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...WTO Forum OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR VIETNAM IN WTO ACCESSION Prof. Dr. Do Hoai Nam Director, National Center for Social Science & Humanity It is imperative to explain the opportunities and challenges faced by Vietnam in its WTO accession. In principle, opportunities and challenges in integration for Vietnam now are affected by two major factors. The first is the complex and fast changing international context. The second is Vietnam's specific issues in its own development. To come up with an appropriate approach, the study on opportunities and challenges for Vietnam in WTO accession should clarify these factors. 1. New international context, opportunities and challenges in development for Vietnam In recent period, the world situation changed rapidly and profoundly as never before. The impact of globalization and the knowledge-based economy forces developing countries to join the world economy system, and the situation for them is much more difficult than before. In general, the level of development in the modern world is measured by the following indicators: First, high speed of change and the faster pace of shortening in the production and technology cycle. Second, the global network structure and the complex nexus of the world economy. Third, conditions for economic development become unstable and unpredictable. Fourth, the balance of power is profoundly changing and driving the world economy, with power concentrating in a few nations and transnational corporations...
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...Current situation analysis after China’s accession to WTO Introduction Since the reform and opening-up policy operated in China in 1978, China has already experienced a process of economic development and international trade improvement. In the early 1980s, China had tried to take several steps to end its economic isolation condition. After that, accompanying with the accession to WTO, China had received a new tide of development no matter in the field of economy or world trade. It has no doubt that China’s accession into WTO would bring about tremendous changes in China’s economic performance. Known as “World Trade Organization”, WTO is one of the most important international economic organizations and also a platform for ideas’ negotiation among different countries. Currently WTO has 159 members and is regarded as the "Economic United Nations”. China has joined the World Trade Organization as the 143rd member of it. From then on, China has made a significant economic improvement in foreign and international trade area, whereas, it also has brought some problems underlying the surface economy boom. And as some experts’ sayings, the disadvantages are far more than the advantages that WTO has brought along these 12 years’ development based on the analysis on the current economic environment, which has also been a challenge to China’s economy and future development from my point of view. The benefits that WTO has brought into China As some experts’ saying, China’s accession...
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...2015 The World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a global organization that was established on January of 1995. Its headquarters are in Geneva Switzerland. The WTO is one of the most influential international organizations that there is at the moment. The World Trade Organization deals with the rules of trade between nations and one of its main goals is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, importers conduct their business. There are 160 countries as of June 26, 2014 that are members of the WTO. One of the main functions of the WTO is to make sure that all the trade agreements and the declarations between its member’s countries are respected and when are told they need to do something they are doing it. The WTO also functions as a forum between its members so its members are able to talk about trade negotiations as well as it also helps them with any dispute resolution between different countries that are members of the WTO. WTO stands for The World Trade Organization in which like it was mentioned is an international organization where the members of this organization talk about trade negotiations. This organization is also a trade opening as well like it was also mentioned before it is where member governments talk about any disputes they have between other members of the organization in any sort of trade problems. Some of the problems that can be resolved in the WTO are that for some reason a member government is having a problem with...
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...not happen again because international institutions would prevent it. I tend to agree with that notion because I believe that many things have changed since the last great power war in the 20th century. The League of Nations was the primary international institution after World War I. The United States however was not a member and the League of Nations, often failing to resolve conflicts in a diplomatic manner. Post World War II, many other international institutions were created which had the objective to manage the world economy and prevent another major war. These institutions included the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The league of nations turned into the United Nations (UN), which today has a total of 193 member states. The UN suggests that every country has a desire to solve conflicts diplomatically first and not start a war immediately. In case a country has a conflict with another country , both can state their cases and opinions in front of the United Nations. The United Nations then tries to mediate between those countries and solve the conflict diplomatically without any military interactions. The other international institutions have similar approaches solving conflicts between member states. Essentially International institutions try to increase their membership, change their missions and visions, and expand their mandates. “These institutions...
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...attempted to answer our final examination by choosing question number 1, 2,4 and 5. In question number 1 I have tried to explain my countries general overview first and then the current trade status, in question number 2 I answered the question How do you view the relationship between WTO and RTAs? & Do you think RTAs helpful or harmful for the development of WTO? Why? Separately, I also tried to answer # 4 what is outsourcing? And how the developing countries take advantage of outsourcing? Finally I explained my perception about Chinese undervalued exchange rate. I used different web sites and other secondary resources to answer all these questions. Nowadays, the WTO has met lots of disruptions, for example the abortion of Seattle Summit in 1999, the failures of Cancun ministerial conference in 2003 and Hong Kong ministerial conference in 2005. Compared with the defeats of WTO, regional trade liberalization developed very fast, kinds of RTAs proliferated in the last two decades. How do you view the relationship between WTO and RTAs? Do you think RTAs helpful or harmful for the development of WTO? Why? (20 points) How do you view the relationship between WTO and RTAs? In my view RTAs and the WTO share the common objective of trade liberalization, the pursuance of similar objectives but according to different approaches creates inevitably some tension in this relationship. Regional trading arrangements are pursued for a variety of reasons. A motivation of virtually every...
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...The World Trade Organization (WTO) website defines itself as an organization as “born out of negotiations”. The WTO of today was created on January 1, 1995 and is comprised of 153 countries as of February 2011. The WTO’s mission statement centers around 3 agreements between its members: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (WTO, 2012). The WTO also serves the function of settling disputes between members and reviewing trade policy to ensure fairness and equity for all members. When our group chose this topic there were split in our opinions of whether the WTO should be abolished. There were sentiments among the group members that the negotiating style and methodology of the WTO was too cumbersome and bureaucratic to achieve decisions that were in the best interest of all parties involved. Other members of the group felt that the WTO is still a valid organization that offers small countries a voice when negotiating with larger more capable nations. The following narrative will outline the most compelling arguments for and against abolishment of the WTO. The negotiating style of the WTO is multilateral, which can be very time consuming and increase the difficulty for the parties involved to reach a deal. The nations involved in the negotiating have different interest while all parties have different productivity and limited resources. It...
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...WTO ACCESSION CHALLENGES: CUSTOMS UNION OF RUSSIA, BELARUS AND KAZAKHSTAN AS THE STEP TOWARDS THIS “DREAM” EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION We live in the twentieth century – a time of dynamic changes in the Global Economy, associated with globalization. In International Trade Arena, the vast majority of the countries choose the free trade policy, which develops step by step: from Free Trade Area, a Custom Union into Common Market and Monetary and Economic Union. Politicians and scientists believe that in 20-30 years Trade World will be subdivided into 2-3 intercontinental preferential zones with its own rules and free trade between the parties, but with external custom barriers in relation to other blocks or still will open the ways for mixing of regionalism and multilateralism based on common objectives and principles. Obviously, the development of the World economy and trade will lead to the formation of a single Global Free Market with the agreed rules and disciplines, which will be applicable to all countries. The dominant position is such a direction takes the World Trade Organization (WTO). It was established on December 8, 1994 and began operating on 1 January, 1995 and is known to be a successor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Here, a distinctive feature and the goal of WTO is the creation of international trade rules and disciplinary measures to ensure the conditions of a free international trade, based on mutually beneficial conditions...
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...of the objectives that WTO or world trade organization aims to promote. As defined, WTO deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its benefits are most commonly categorized to 10 aspects, namely: peace, disputes, income, rules, cost of living, choice, growths and job, efficiency, lobbying and good government. Our country, the Philippines, has been a WTO member since January 1995. Questions exist since then whether our country has derived the supposed to be benefits by joining this organizations. Is it really beneficial to the Philippines? One of my readings stated that political analyst, Walder Bello, described the Philippines membership on the organization as "a multilateral punishment". As for my opinion, I believe as well that Philippines is better off not joining the WTO. One obvious reason is that more Filipinos patronize foreign products than the local one. It is set to their mind that foreign products provide desired service or glamour expected of a product or brand than products coming from local. The philippines is a third world country and I notice that WTO hurts the third world. WTO rules force third world countries to open their market to rich country, multinationals, and abandon effects to protect small domestic industries. In agriculture, the opening to foreign imports, soon to be imposed on developing countries, will catalyze a massive social dislocations of many millions of rural people. The policies of the WTO impacts all aspects of...
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...Introduction Why Do Governments Intervene in Trade? Political Motives Protect Jobs Preserve National Security National Security and Imports National Security and Exports Respond To “Unfair” Trade Gain Influence Economic Motives Protect Infant Industries Pursue Strategic Trade Policy Benefits of Strategic Trade Policy Drawbacks of Strategic Trade Policy Cultural Motives Cultural Influence of the United States Methods of Promoting Trade Subsidies Subsidies in Media and Entertainment Drawbacks of Subsidies Export Financing Foreign Trade Zones Special Government Agencies Methods of Restricting Trade Tariffs Protect Domestic Producers Generate Revenue Quotas Reason for Import Quotas Reasons for Export Quotas Voluntary Export Restraints Tariff-Quotas Embargoes Local Content Requirements Administrative Delays Currency Controls Global Trading System 1 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round of Negotiations Agreement on Services Agreement on Intellectual Property Agreement on Agricultural Subsidies World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement in the WTO Dumping and the WTO Subsidies and the WTO Doha Round of Negotiations The WTO and the Environment Bottom Line for Business Implications of Trade Protection Implications of the Global Trading System A comprehensive set of specially designed PowerPoint slides (designated ‘PPT’ below) is available for use with...
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... Summer 2008 Term Paper – World Trade Organization (WTO) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION 4 1.1 What is WTO? 1.2 History of WTO 1.3 Mission 1.4 The Structure of WTO 2.0 WTO SYSTEMS 11 3.0 CONITIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP 17 4.0 OBJECTIVES OF WTO 24 5.0 WTO DISPUTE RESOLUTION SYSTEM 27 5.1 Governing Principles 5.2 Stages Of Dispute Resolution 6.0 SUCCESS AND FAILURES OF WTO 29 7.0 WTO AND 3RD WORLD RELATED ISSUES 35 7.1 Who are the Least Developed Countries? 7.2 Who Are the Developing Countries? 7.3 Issues Relating to 3rd World Countries 7.4 Action Plan for the Least Developed Countries 8.0 CHALLENGES FACED BY WTO 42 8.1 Overloading the WTO 8.2 Decision Making 8.3 The role of overlapping unimplemented commitments from the Uruguay Round with new issues from the Doha Round 8.4 Regionalism 8.5 Eroding national sovereignty 8.6 Asymmetry between goods and service liberalization 8.7 Protecting intellectual property 8.8 Asymmetry between public and private trade restrictive Measures 8.9 Shooting at a moving target: Protectionism in disguise 8.10 Doha Development Agenda 8.11 A Healthy WTO 8.12 Timeliness and Politics 8.13 The Alternative to the Doha Round 8. 14 Next Steps for the WTO 9.0 OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES 58 10.0 CONCLUSION 59 11.0 REFERENCES...
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...Subject of Research 2. Research Topic 3. Object of Study 4. Introduction 5. Research Objective and Research Questions 6. Research Technique 7. Review of Literature 1. Subject of Research: The proposed research shows the complex and dynamic nature of trade and the WTO’s trade rules and highlighting benefits of trading system. 2. Research Topic: Topic of this research paper is “success and failure of WTO”. 3. Object of Study: The object of the proposed research is to know the trade and non-trade barriers affecting the global economic growth by rules and regulations of WTO. 4. Introduction: The World Trade Organization — the WTO — is the international organization whose primary purpose is to open trade for the benefit of all. The WTO provides a forum for negotiating agreements aimed at reducing obstacles to international trade and ensuring a level playing field for all, thus contributing to economic growth and development. The WTO also provides a legal and institutional framework for the implementation and monitoring of these agreements, as well as for settling disputes arising from their interpretation...
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...Governments Intervene in Trade? Political Motives Protect Jobs Preserve National Security National Security and Imports National Security and Exports Respond To “Unfair” Trade Gain Influence Economic Motives Protect Infant Industries Pursue Strategic Trade Policy Benefits of Strategic Trade Policy Drawbacks of Strategic Trade Policy Cultural Motives Cultural Influence of the United States Methods of Promoting Trade Subsidies Subsidies in Media and Entertainment Drawbacks of Subsidies Export Financing Foreign Trade Zones Special Government Agencies Methods of Restricting Trade Tariffs Protect Domestic Producers Generate Revenue Quotas Reason for Import Quotas Reasons for Export Quotas Voluntary Export Restraints Tariff-Quotas Embargoes Local Content Requirements Administrative Delays Currency Controls Global Trading System General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round of Negotiations Agreement on Services Agreement on Intellectual Property Agreement on Agricultural Subsidies World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement in the WTO Dumping and the WTO Subsidies and the WTO Doha Round of Negotiations The WTO and the Environment Bottom Line for Business Implications of Trade Protection Implications of the Global Trading System A comprehensive set of specially designed...
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...World Trade Organization (WTO) Introduction The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an organization that intends 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 1948. The organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements, and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986–1994). The organization is currently endeavoring to persist with a trade negotiation called the Doha Development Agenda (or Doha Round), which was launched in 2001 to enhance equitable participation of poorer countries which represent a majority of the world's population. However, the negotiation has been dogged by "disagreement between exporters of agricultural bulk commodities and countries with large numbers of subsistence farmers on the precise terms of a 'special safeguard measure' to protect farmers from surges in imports. At this time, the future of the Doha Round is uncertain." Subject to formal ratification of the three most recent members, the WTO has 157 members,[7] representing...
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