World Trade Organisation

(WTO)
• WTO happens to be an organization responsible for liberalizing
trade. It’s a forum to negotiate trade agreements for various
governments. It’s a place where trade disputes are settled. It
operates a system of trade rules.
• The WTO has 164 members and 23 observer governments.
Afghanistan became the 164th member in July 2016.
• The WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), which was created in 1947 in the expectation that it
would soon be replaced by a specialized agency of the United
Nations (UN) to be called the International Trade Organization (ITO).
• The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization,
with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and
global GDP.
• The WTO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995
• The WTO's two most important decision-making bodies,
the Ministerial Conference and the General Council
• The Ministerial Conference is the WTO’s highest decision-making
body and includes all WTO members, represented by their
respective trade ministers. It meets at least once every two
years and may make decisions on all matters with respect to any of
the WTO’s multilateral agreements.
• The General Council, which also includes all WTO members, is
responsible for the WTO’s day-to-day decision-making in between
ministerial conferences.
• On 15th February 2021, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as the
WTO Director-General. She is the first woman chief of the WTO.
She is also the first African to hold the office of WTO as its director-
general.
• Brajendra Navnit assumed charge as Ambassador and Permanent
Representative of India to the WTO, Geneva on 29th June, 2020.

History of WTO
• The WTO started functioning on 1 January 1995, but its trading
system is half a century older. Since 1948, the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had given the rules for the system. (The
second WTO ministerial meeting, held in Geneva in May 1998,
included a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the system.)
• It did not take long for the General Agreement to give birth to an
unofficial, extant international organization, also known informally
as GATT.
• Over the years, GATT evolved through several rounds of
negotiations.
• The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had its last
round in 1986 and it lasted till 1994.
• This was known as the Uruguay Round and it led to the formulation
of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
While GATT mostly dealt with trade in goods, the WTO and its
agreements could not only cover goods but also trade in services and
other intellectual properties like trade creations, designs, and
inventions.

Is India a founding member of the WTO?

India has been a member of the World Trade
organization since the beginning of 1995.
India was also a member of GATT since 1948.
Objectives and operation
The WTO 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, and
(6) to help developing countries benefit fully from the global trading
system.

Q.1 When did the World Trade Organization come into effect?
(a)) March 6, 1996
(b) April 8, 1994
(c) February 5, 1994
(d) January 1, 1995
Q.2 How many members are present in the WTO?
(a) 207
(b) 195
(c) 160
(d) 164
Q.3 Where is the headquarters of the WTO located?
(a) Austria
(b) Geneva
(c) New York
(d) Washington DC