World Trade Organisation - WTO

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATIONThe World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a global organisation that helps countries and producers of goods deal fairly and smoothly while conducting their business across international borders. It mainly does this through WTO agreements, which are negotiated and signed by a large majority of the trading nations in the world. These documents act as contracts that provide the legal framework for conducting business among nations. There are several groups within the WTO, with the highest decision-making authority going to a group known as the Ministerial Conference, which can make decisions on all matters and trade disputes among members.HISTORY:The WTO was officially created in January of 1995 and essentially replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which had been in force since 1948, a few years after the Second World War. In the 1980s, as the world economies became more global in trade and business, it became evident thatGATT was not built or structured to address many of the new global trading challenges that were arising. As a result, the biggest trade negotiating event on record began in 1986. It was known as the Uruguay Round, seeing as it took place in Punta del Este, Uruguay. One of the final accomplishments of this roundwas the creation of the WTO. The WTO is currently working on new negotiations and agreements, known as the Doha Development Agenda, and these started in 2001.Uruguay Round:Well before GATT's 4oth anniversary, its members concluded that the GATT system was straining to adapt to a new globalising world economy. In response to the problems identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration, the eighth GATT round – known as the Uruguay Round – was launched in September 1986, in Punta del Este, Uruguay.It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed: the talks were going to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles; all the original GATT articles were up for review. The FinalAct concluding the Uruguay Round and officially establishing the WTO regime was signed 15 April 1994, during the ministerial meeting at Marrakesh, Morocco, and hence is known as the Marrakesh Agreement. The GATT still exists as the WTO's umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the UruguayRound negotiationsDoha Round:The WTO launched the current round of negotiations, the Doha Development Round, at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. This was to be an ambitious effort to make globalisation more inclusive and help the world's poor, particularly by slashing barriers and subsidies in farming . The initial agenda comrised both further trade liberalisation and new rule-making, underpinned by commitments to strengthen substantial assistance to developing countries

Progress stalled after differences between developed nations and the major developing countrics on issues industrial tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade particularly against and between the EU and the tarming. The initial agenda comprised both further trade liberalisation and new rule-making underpinned by commitments to strengthen substantial assistance to developing countries, US over their maintenance of agricultural subsidies. Repeated attempts to revive the talks were unsuccessful, though the adoption of the Bali Ministerial Declaration in 2013 addressed bureauctatic barriers to commerceAs of June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remained uncertain: the work programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and the round is still incomplete conflict between free trade on industrial goods and services but retention of protectionism subsidies to domestic agricultural sector (requested by developed countries) and the substantiation of fair trade on agricultural products (requested by developing countries) remain the major obstacles. This impasse has made it impossible to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the Doha Development Round As a result, there have been an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements between  governments. As of July 2012, there were various negotiation groups in the WIO system for the current agricultural trade negotiation, which is in the condition of stalemate.Functions:Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most important:

Additionally, it is WTO's duty to review propagate the national trade policies, and to ensure the  coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making.Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training.1. The WTO shall facilitate the implementation, administration and operation and further the objectives of this Agreement and of the Multilateral Trade Agreements, and shall also provide the framework for the implementation, administration and operation of the multilateral Trade Agreements.2 The WTO shall provide the forum for negotiations among its members concerning their multilateral trade relations in matters dealt with under the Agreement in the Annexes to this Agreement.3. The WTO shall administer the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes.4. The WTO shall administer Trade Policy Review Mechanism.5. With a view to achieving greater coherence in global economic policy making, the WTO shall cooperate, as appropriate, with the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and its affiliated agencies.