- For other uses of the initials WTO, see WTO (disambiguation).
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Logo WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization which oversees a large number of agreements defining the "rules of trade" between its member states (WTO, 2004a). It was created on 1 January 1995 to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a series of post-war trade treaties aimed to abolish international trade barriers. The GATT principles and agreements were adopted by the WTO, which was charged with administering and extending them. The WTO is the long-delayed successor to the project of the International Trade Organization, which was originally intended to follow GATT. The International Trade Organisation charter was agreed at the UN Conference on Trade and Employment in Havana in March 1948, but was blocked by the U.S. Senate (WTO, 2004b).
WTO headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland. Its current Director-General is Supachai Panitchpakdi. As of 12 December 2004, there are 148 members in the organization (WTO, 2004a). All WTO members are required to grant one another most favored nation status, such that (with some exceptions) trade concessions granted by a WTO member to another country must be granted to all WTO members (WTO, 2004c).
In the late 1990s, the WTO became a major target of protests by the anti-globalization movement. See critique.
Functions
The WTO has two basic functions: as a negotiating forum for discussions of new and existing trade rules, and as a trade dispute settlement body.
Negotiations
Where most international organizations operate on a one country, one vote or even a weighted voting basis, many WTO decisions, such as adopting agreements (and revisions to them) are determined by consensus. This does not necessarily mean that unanimity is found: only that no Member finds a decision so unacceptable that they must insist on their objection. Voting is only employed as a fall-back mechanism or in special cases.
The advantage of consensus is that it encourages efforts to find the most widely acceptable decision. Main disadvantages include large time requirements and many rounds of negotiation to develop a consensus decision, and the tendency for final agreements to use ambiguous language on contentious points that makes future interpretation of treaties difficult. Richard Steinberg (2002) argues that although the WTO's consensus governance model provides law-based initial bargaining, trading rounds close through power-based bargaining favouring Europe and the United States, and may not lead to Pareto improvement. The most notable recent failures of consensus, at the Ministerial meetings at Seattle (1999) and Cancún (2003), were due to the refusal of some developing countries to accept proposed decisions.
The WTO agreed to begin the current round of negotiations, the "Doha Development Agenda", at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001 (WTO, 2004d).
Dispute resolution
Unlike many other international organizations, the WTO has significant power to enforce its decisions, through the operation of its Dispute Settlement Body, an international trade court with the power to authorize sanctions against states which do not comply with its rulings.
The 2004 talks were actually held in Dubai, UAE, not Doha.
Membership
dark green - members, bright green-yellow-orange-red - negotiations activity in decreasing order, pink - no official relations with the WTO The WTO had 76 members at its creation. A further 72 members joined over the following ten years, the latest (as of 12 December 2004) being Cambodia on 13 October 2004.
A number of non-members have observers at the WTO: Algeria, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belarus, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican), Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanese Republic, Libya, Russian Federation, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Montenegro (each republic is applying for separate membership), Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tonga, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Viet Nam and Yemen. Many of these countries are seeking membership.
Iran, which first asked to join the WTO in 1996, has seen its request repeatedly blocked by the United States, which lists Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. Russia is also not yet a member, having first applied to join GATT in 1993.
Chronology
- 1986-1994 - Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations culminating in the Marrakech Agreement that established the WTO.
- January 1, 1995 - The WTO came into existence.
- May 1, 1995 - Renato Ruggiero became director-general for a 4-year term.
- September 1, 1999 - Mike Moore became director-general. The post had been fiercely contested; eventually a compromise was reached with Mike Moore and Supachai Panitchpakdi taking half each of a six-year term.
- November 30, 1999 - 3rd ministerial conference in Seattle, Washington, USA. The conference itself ended in failure, with massive demonstrations and riots drawing worldwide attention.
- November 9 - November 13, 2001 - 4th ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar. Issuance of the Doha Declaration.
- December 11, 2001 - The People's Republic of China joined the WTO after 15 years of negotiations (the longest in GATT history).
- September 1, 2002 - Supachai Panitchpakdi became director-general.
- September 10 - September 14, 2003 - 5th ministerial conference in Cancún, Mexico. An alliance of 22 southern states, led by India, China and Brazil, resisted demands from the North for agreements on the so-called "Singapore issues (http://www.ictsd.org/pubs/dohabriefings/doha6-singaporeIssues.pdf)": investment protection, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation, while calling for an end to agricultural subsidies within the EU and the US. The talks broke down without progress.
Critique
WTO treaties have been considered to benefit above all multinational corporations and wealthy national economies. While membership is voluntary, not joining practically places the protestor in an embargo. WTO therefore creates an international system of forced economical rules which prevent change and experimenting and promote economical globalization and free trade, which many consider problematic.
Decission making in and related to the organization has faced much critcism as well. Practically, "the big three" (USA, EU and Japan) dominate and are allowed to make big decissions concerning all mankind, whichof they represent only a small portion. In addition, the WTO treaties haven't been properly discussed in the member states despite their wide impacts, making them democratically invalid.
Related articles
External links
Anti-WTO links
Further reading
- John Braithwaite & Peter Drahos, Global Business Regulation, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Graham Dunkley, The Free Trade Adventure, Zed Books, 2000.
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