International organizations and movements. Their role in the promotion of peace, global cooperation and mutual understanding
WORLD TRADE ORGANISTAION
Matveev Andrey 11 “A”
Center of Education №1816
2002
WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION
Nobody will deny if I say that in our modern world it is very important
to control the relationship between different countries. There are
different organizations nowadays. They control different aspects of our
everyday life. I would like to speak about world trade organization. It
deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is
to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
First of all I would like to give some facts about the creation and
location of WTO.
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Established: 1 January 1995
Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986–94)
Membership: 134 countries (as of February 1999)
Budget: 122 million Swiss francs for 1999
Secretariat staff: 500
Head: Director-general
Functions:
• Administering WTO trade agreements
• Forum for trade negotiations
• Handling trade disputes
• Monitoring national trade policies
• Technical assistance and training for developing countries
• Cooperation with other international organizations
The World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. One of the
youngest of the international organizations, the WTO is the successor to
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in the wake
of the Second World War. So while the WTO is still young, the multilateral
trading system that was originally set up under GATT is already 50 years
old. The system celebrated its golden jubilee in Geneva on 19 May 1998,
with many heads of state and government leaders attending. The past 50
years have seen an exceptional growth in world trade. Merchandise exports
grew on average by 6% annually. Total trade in 1997 was 14-times the level
of 1950. GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and prosperous
trading system contributing to unprecedented growth. The system was
developed through a series of trade negotiations, or rounds, held under
GATT. The first rounds dealt mainly with tariff reductions but later
negotiations included other areas such as anti-dumping and non-tariff
measures. The latest round—the 1986-94. Uruguay Round—led to the WTO’s
creation. The negotiations did not end there. Some continued after the end
of the Uruguay Round. In February 1997 agreement was reached on
telecommunications services, with 69 governments agreeing to wide-ranging
liberalization measures that went beyond those agreed in the Uruguay Round.
In the same year 40 governments successfully concluded negotiations for
tariff-free trade in information technology products, and 70 members
concluded a financial services deal covering more than 95% of trade in
banking, insurance, securities and financial information. At the May 1998
ministerial meeting in Geneva, WTO members agreed to study trade issues
arising from global electronic commerce. The next ministerial conference is
due to be held in the United States in late 1999. In 2000, new talks are
due to start on agriculture and services and possibly a range of other
issues.
FUNCTIONS
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 programs
• Cooperating with other international organizations
STRUCTURE
The WTO has more than 130 members, accounting for over 90% of world
trade. Over 30 others are negotiating membership. 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. 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. The first
Ministerial Conference in Singapore in 1996 added three new working groups
to this structure. They deal with the relationship between trade and
investment, the interaction between trade and competition policy and
transparency in government procurement. At the second Ministerial
Conference in Geneva in 1998 ministers decided that the WTO would also
study the area of electronic commerce, a task to be shared out among
existing councils and committees.
SECRETARIAT
The WTO Secretariat, based in Geneva, has around 500 staff and is
headed by a director-general. 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. The Secretariat’s main duties are to supply
technical support for the various councils and committees and the
ministerial conferences, to provide technical assistance for developing
countries, to analyze world trade, and to explain WTO affairs to the public
and media.
The Secretariat also provides some forms of legal assistance in the
dispute settlement process and advises governments wishing to become
members of the WTO.
The annual budget is roughly 122 million Swiss francs. How can you
ensure that trade is as fair as possible, and as free as is practical? By
negotiating rules and abiding by them. The WTO’s rules—the agreements—are
the result of negotiations between the members. The current set were the
outcome of the 1986–94 Uruguay Round negotiations which included a major
revision of the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
GATT is now the WTO’s principal rule-book for trade in goods. The Uruguay
Round also created new rules for dealing with trade in services, relevant
aspects of intellectual property, dispute settlement, and trade policy
reviews. The complete set runs to some 30,000 pages consisting of about 60
agreements and separate commitments (called schedules) made by individual
members in specific areas such as lower customs duty rates and services
market-opening. Through these agreements, WTO members operate a non-
discriminatory trading system that spells out their rights and their
obligations. Each country receives guarantees that its exports will be
treated fairly and consistently in other. These principles appear in the
new General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). WTO members have also
made individual commitments under GATS stating which of their services
sectors they are willing to open to foreign competition, and how open those
markets are. countries’ markets. Each promises to do the same for imports
into its own market. The system also gives developing countries some
flexibility in implementing their commitments.
GOODS
It all began with trade in goods. From 1947 to 1994, GATT was the forum
for negotiating lower customs duty rates and other trade barriers; the text
of General Agreement spelt out important rules, particularly non-
discrimination. Since 1995, the updated GATT has become the WTO’s umbrella
agreement for trade in goods. It has annexes dealing with specific sectors
such as agriculture and textiles, and with specific issues such as state
trading, product standards, subsidies and actions taken against dumping.
SERVICES
Banks, insurance firms, telecommunications companies, tour operators,
hotel chains and transport companies looking to do business abroad can now
enjoy the same principles of freer and fairer trade that originally only
applied to trade in goods.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The WTO’s intellectual property agreement amounts to rules for trade
and investment in ideas and creativity. The rules state how copyrights,
trademarks, geographical names used to identify products, industrial
designs, integrated circuit layout-designs and undisclosed information such
as trade secrets—“intellectual property”—should be protected when trade is
involved.
DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
The WTO’s procedure for resolving trade quarrels under the Dispute
Settlement Understanding is vital for enforcing the rules and therefore for
ensuring that trade flows smoothly. Countries bring disputes to the WTO if
they think their rights under the agreements are being infringed. Judgments
by specially-appointed independent experts are based on interpretations of
the agreements and individual countries’ commitments. The system encourages
countries to settle their differences through consultation. Failing that,
they can follow a carefully mapped out, stage-by-stage procedure that
includes the possibility of a ruling by a panel of experts, and the chance
to appeal the ruling on legal grounds. Confidence in the system is borne
out by the number of cases brought to the WTO—167 cases by March 1999
compared to some 300 disputes dealt with during the entire life of GATT
(1947–94).
POLICY REVIEW
The Trade Policy Review Mechanism’s purpose is to improve transparency,
to create a greater understanding of the policies that countries are
adopting, and to assess their impact. Many members also see the reviews as
constructive feedback on their policies. All WTO members must undergo
periodic scrutiny, each review containing reports by the country concerned
and the WTO Secretariat. Over 54 members have been reviewed since the WTO
came into force.
DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE
Over three quarters of WTO members are developing or least-developed
countries. Special provisions for these members are included in all the WTO
agreements. They include longer time periods for implementing agreements
and commitments, measures to increase trading opportunities for these
countries, provisions requiring all WTO members to safeguard the trade
interests of developing countries, and support to help developing countries
build the infrastructure for WTO work, handle disputes, and implement
technical standards. In 1997, a high-level meeting on trade initiatives and
technical assistance for least-developed countries brought their concerns
to centre stage. The meeting involved six intergovernmental agencies and
resulted in an “integrated framework” to help least-developed countries
increase their ability to trade, and some additional preferential market
access agreements. A committee on trade and development, assisted by a sub-
committee on least-developed countries, looks at developing countries’
special needs. Its responsibility includes implementation of the
agreements, technical cooperation, and the increased participation of
developing countries in the global trading system
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING
The WTO organizes around 100 technical cooperation missions to
developing countries annually. It holds on average three trade policy
courses each year in Geneva for government officials. Regional seminars are
held regularly in all regions of the world with a special emphasis on
African countries. Training courses are also organized in Geneva for
officials from countries in transition from central planning to market
economies. In 1997/98, the WTO set up reference centers in over 40 trade
ministries in capitals of least-developed countries, providing computers
and internet access to enable ministry officials to keep abreast of events
in the WTO in Geneva through online access to the WTO’s immense database of
official documents and other material.