Submitted By

Niladdree Dey Rahul

(EV193071015)
Shouvra Prakash Das
(EV193071019)
Establishment

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation of international
trade between nations. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on
15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. It is the largest international
economic organization in the world. As of 29 July 2016 there are 164 members of the WTO and 22 countries have an observer status.
Structure :

The WTO has 164 members, accounting for 98% of world trade. A total of 22 countries 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, the GATT. The WTO’s agreements have been ratified in all
members’ parliaments.
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 organization
(6) to help developing countries benefit fully from the global trading system.
The basic principles of the WTO (according to the WTO):

1. Most favor nation (MFN): treating other people equally

2. National treatment: Treating foreigners and locals equally
3. Freer trade: gradually, through negotiation
4. Predictability: through binding and transparency
5. Promoting fair competition
6. Encouraging development and economic reform.
Function :

1. Administering and implementing the multilateral and bilateral trade agreements which together make up WTO
2. Acting as a forum for multilateral trade negotiation
3. Seeking to resolve trade disputes
4. Overseeing national trade policies
5. Cooperating with other international institution involved in global policy making.
WTO dispute settlement process:

(a) consultations between the parties;

(b) adjudication by panels and, if applicable, by the Appellate Body; and
(c) the implementation of the ruling, which includes the possibility of countermeasures in the event of failure by the losing party to
implement the ruling.
THANK YOU