WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
The World Trade Organization is an international organization working to liberalize trade and is known to be the predecessor of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) formed in 1944. WTO suggests, ratifies, revises, and enforces trade rules and regulations for all the member states to globalize trade.
HEADQUARTERS: Geneva, Switzerland
DIRECTOR GENERAL: Nogozi Okonjo-leweala
DATE: January 1, 1995
TOTAL ECONOMY (BUDGET): 83 million USD
MEMBER STATES: 164 member states (160 Hong Kong, EU, Macau, Taiwan)
Read More about WTO: https://www.wto.org/
KEY AREAS OF INVOLVEMENT:
The World Trade Organization has six key objectives
(1) To set and enforce rules for international trade
(2) To provide a forum for negotiating and monitoring further trade liberalization
(3) To resolve trade disputes
(4) To increase the transparency of decision-making processes,
(5) To cooperate with other major international economic institutions involved in global economic management
(6) To help developing countries benefit fully from the global trading system.
Read More: https://youthdiplomacyforum.com/2022/04/11/international-olympic-committee/
PURPOSE:
The substantial purpose is to reduce tariffs on trades, protect the intellectual property rights of member states, improvement of the rules for settling disputes among nations, and protect property across the borders.
HISTORY:
The dawn of WW2 inflicted upon the world a great misery and so did its termination. Bare-handed countries which emerged out of this catastrophe were faced with crippled economies. The formation of the World Trade Organization was actually meant to facilitate those states and provide reconstruction and economic facilities. It was formerly known as GATT. Through various negotiation rounds, GATT kept on diversifying with the addition of various agreements, codes, interpretations, and reports of various disputed settlements. GATT 1994, after including agreements and negotiations of the Uruguay rounds with several other multilateral agreements came to be known as World Trade Organization.
STRUCTURE:
- WTO has its highest authority called the ministerial Conference composed of representatives from all the member states meeting at least two times a year.
- The day-to-day work is carried out by the General Council consisting of subsidiary bodies. It also consists of all members of the World Trade Organization. It convenes in two particular forms – as a dispute settlement body and as a Trade policy Review Body to view the trade policies of member states.
- The General Council delegates Council of Trade Goods, Trade in services, and Trade-Related Aspects of intellectual property.
Reported by Ms. Sahab Humaira, a student of International Relations at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. She is interested in diplomacy and international institutions. she is also a member of the youth diplomacy forum.
