World Trade Organization

5 Pages 1167 Words

World Trade Organization


The World Trade Organization came into being on January 1st, 1995. WTO, a multilateral trading system, is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT) established in the wake of World War 2.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 purpose of the WTO is mainly to facilitate trade. The organization stresses that they are merely place for countries to negotiate trade and settle disputes. The WTO also helps lower trade barriers but also enforces trade rules and regulations. For example, the WTO encourages trading without discrimination. This is when countries trade with other countries and treat each individual country equally. With this principle bribes and unfair trading is eliminated. The WTO’s ultimate goal is “to improve the welfare of the peoples of the member countries.”
The WTO’s headquarters’ are in Geneva, Switzerland on the lake shore (Koppel). It employs about 600 people including 50 at the headquarters. It has 148 member countries including the U.S. being a large member with heavy influence. The member countries account for 97% of all world trade. Of those, forty nations account for ninety percent of all trade. The most dominant countries in the WTO are Canada, Japan, European Union, and the U.S. known as the Quad.
The World Trade Organization operates as a general consensus of member nations. All decisions represent the membership as a whole. Member nations are represented by ministers or ambassadors from their country. Each member enforces the negotiation agreed upon by the organization. The advantages to member decisions are the acceptability to all members. (wto.org)
The highest authority level of the WTO is the ministerial...