...In brief,
the World Trade Organization (WTO)is the only international organization dealing withthe global rules o trade between nations.Its main unction is to ensure that trade fows as smoothly, predictably and reely as possible.
The World Trade Organization...
The result
is assurance. Consumers and producers know that they can enjoy secure supplies and greater choice o the fnished products, components, raw materials and services that they use. Producers and exporters know that oreign markets will remainopen to them.The result is also a more prosperous, peaceul and accountable economic world. Decisionsin the WTO are typically taken by consensus among all member countries and they areratifed by members’ parliaments. Trade riction is channeled into the WTO’s dispute settlement process where the ocus is on interpreting agreements and commitments, and how to ensure that countries’ trade policies conorm with them. That way, the risk o disputes spilling over into political or military conict is reduced.By lowering trade barriers, the WTO’s system also breaks down other barriers between peoples and nations.
At the heart
o the system – known as the multilateral trading system – are the WTO’sagreements, negotiated and signed by a large majority o the world’s trading nations, and ratifed in their parliaments. These agreements are the legal ground-rules or international commerce. Essentially, they are contracts, guaranteeing member countries important traderights. They also bind governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits toeverybody’s beneft.The agreements were negotiated and signed by governments. But their purpose is to help producers o goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.
The goal
is to improve the welare o the peoples o the member countries.
THE MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM–PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE
The World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. One o the youngest o theinternational organizations, the WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tarisand Trade (GATT) established in the wake o the Second World War.So while the WTO is still young, the multilateral trading system that was originally set upunder GATT is well over 50 years old.The past 50 years have seen an exceptional growth in world trade. Merchandise exportsgrew on average by 6% annually. Total trade in 2000 was 22-times the level o 1950.GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and prosperous trading systemcontributing to unprecedented growth.The system was developed through a series o trade negotiations, or rounds, held underGATT. The rst rounds dealt mainly with tari reductions but later negotiations includedother areas such as anti-dumping and non-tari measures. The last round – the 1986-94Uruguay Round – led to the WTO’s creation.The negotiations did not end there. Some continued ater the end o the Uruguay Round.In February 1997 an agreement was reached on telecommunications services, with 69governments agreeing to wide-ranging liberalization measures that went beyond thoseagreed in the Uruguay Round.In the same year, 40 governments successully concluded negotiations or tari-ree tradein inormation technology products, and 70 members concluded a nancial services dealcovering more than 95% o trade in banking, insurance, securities and nancialinormation.In 2000, new talks started on agriculture and services. These have now been incorporatedinto a broader work programme, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), launched at theourth WTO Ministerial Conerence in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.The agenda adds negotiations and other work on non-agricultural taris, trade andenvironment, WTO rules such as anti-dumping and subsidies, investment, competitionpolicy, trade acilitation, transparency in government procurement, intellectual property,and a range o issues raised by developing countries as diculties they ace inimplementing the present WTO agreements.
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
Notes
Load more
