General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

World Trade Organization (WTO)

Agulan, Ly Ann L.
Arceo, Dan Michael G.
Cheung, Liezel
Ico, Princess Zaira
Mapili, Jayson
Rey, Jenivie
Sapiter, Ken
Tubiera, Djanlee
Urfano, Katrina Joie M.

History of World Trade Organization

Second World War
- The successor of World Trade Agreement, the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established.
- GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and prosperous
trading system contributing to unprecedented growth.
-

The first rounds dealt mainly with tariff reductions but later

negotiations included other areas such as anti-dumping and non-tariff

measures.

History of World Trade Organization

1944
- a meeting took place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire: the
International Monetary Conference.
- negotiators agreed to create the International
- Monetary Fund and the World Bank but they could not agree on an
organization to deal with international trade

History of World Trade Organization

1947
- twenty-three nations approved the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade, or GATT
-It was meant to be temporary. Trade negotiations under GATT were
carried out in a series of talks called rounds.
- The first round lowered import taxes on one-fifth of world trade. Later
rounds produced additional cuts, and negotiators added more issues.

History of World Trade Organization

1963
- The six round began and it was called the Kennedy Round after the
murder of President John F. Kennedy. The results included an
agreement against trade dumping. This is when one country sells a
product in another country at an unfairly low price.

History of World Trade Organization

1986
- GATT was known as the Uruguay Round of talks because the wideranging trade liberalization negotiations (eighth round) began in the
Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este in 1986.
- The Uruguay Round lasted almost twice as long as planned. In all,
one hundred twenty-three nations took part in seven-and-a-half years of
work. They set time limits for future negotiations. They also agreed to
create a permanent system to settle trade disputes.

History of World Trade Organization

1994
- GATT was formally signed on April 15, 1994, in Marrakesh,
Morocco, by representatives from 124 member countries. It replaced
GATT with the World Trade Organization.
- The U.S. House of Representatives approved the legislation on
November 29, 1994, and the Senate ratified the accord on December 1.
President Clinton signed the bill on December 8.

History of World Trade Organization

1995
- The treaty established a successor to GATT, the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and it replaced GATT on January 1, 1995.
- Because of U.S. concerns that some future decisions by the
organization may be unacceptable under U.S. laws, a provision in the
treaty allows any member to withdraw from the WTO six months after
giving notice.
- The World Trade Organization came into existence in nineteen ninetyfive. It operates a system of trade rules. It serves as a place for nations
to settle disputes and negotiate agreements to reduce trade barriers. The
newest of its one hundred fifty members, Vietnam, joined in January.

History of World Trade Organization

1997
- February 1997, agreement was reached on telecommunications
services, with 69 governments agreeing to wide-ranging liberalization
measures that went beyond those agreed in the Uruguay Round.
- 40 governments successfully concluded negotiations for tariff-free
trade in information technology products, and 70 members concluded a
financial services deal covering more than 95% of trade in banking,
insurance, securities and financial information.

History of World Trade Organization

2000
- New talks started on agriculture and services
2001
- The W.T.O. launched a new round on development issues in Doha,
Qatar, in November of two thousand one. These talks were supposed to
end by January of two thousand five. But negotiators
could not agree on issues involving agricultural protections. The
current round has been suspended since last July.

History of World Trade Organization

-These talks have now been incorporated into a broader agenda
launched at the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in
November 2001 by WTO trade ministers.
- The work programme, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), adds
negotiations and other work on non-agricultural tariffs, trade and
environment, WTO rules such as anti-dumping and subsidies,
investment,

History of World Trade Organization

competition policy, trade facilitation, transparency in government
procurement, intellectual property, and a range of issues raised by
developing countries as difficulties they face in implementing the
present WTO agreements.
- The WTO is headquartered in Geneva and also holds international
ministerial conferences; it has 159 members.

The Leaders
- Roberto Azevdo is the sixth Director-General of the WTO. His
appointment took effect on 1 September 2013 for a four-year term.
- Tim Yeend is the Chef de Cabinet
The four Deputy Directors-General
1. Yonov Frederick Agah of Nigeria
2. Karl Brauner of Germany
3. David Shark of the United States
4. Yi Xiaozhun of China

Main function
To ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as
possible.
To do with trade negotiations and the enforcement of negotiated
multilateral trade rules. Special focus is given to particular policies
supporting these functions:
- Assisting developing and transition economies
- Specialized help for exporting: the International Trade Centre
- The WTO in global economic policy-making
- Keeping the WTO and public informed

Goals
- To help producers of goods and services, exporters, and
importers

conduct

their

business,

while

allowing

governments to meet social and environmental objectives.

- To improve the welfare of the peoples of the member
countries.

The rules embodied in both the GATT and

the WTO serve at least three purposes:
1. They attempt to protect the interests of small and weak countries
against discriminatory trade practices of large and powerful countries.
2. The rules require members to limit trade only through tariffs and to
provide market access not less favourable than that specified in their
schedules.
3. The rules are designed to help governments resist lobbying efforts
by domestic interest groups seeking special favours.

Objective
- To set and enforce rules for international trade.
- To help developing countries benefit fully from the global trading
system.
- To increase the transparency of decision-making processes.
- To cooperate with other major international economic institutions
involved in global economic management

Objective
The WTOs overriding objective is to help trade flow smoothly, freely,
fairly and predictably.
It does this by:
- Administering trade agreements
- Acting as a forum for trade negotiations
- Settling trade disputes
- Reviewing national trade policies
- Assisting developing countries in trade policy issues, through
technical assistance and training programmes
- Cooperating with other international organizations

The member countries

There are 128 countries that had signed GATT by 1994. The
governments that had signed GATT were officially known as
GATT contracting parties. Upon signing the new WTO
agreements (which include the updated GATT, known as GATT
1994), they officially became known as WTO members. And
now there are 161 members since 26 April 2015.

The member countries

The member countries

The member countries

Activities
- Non-discrimination, a country should not discriminate between its
trading partners and it should not discriminate between its own and
foreign products, services or nationals.
- More open, lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious
ways of encouraging trade; these barriers include customs duties (or
tariffs) and measures such as import bans or quotas that restrict
quantities selectively.

Activities

- Predictable and transparent, foreign companies, investors and

governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be
raised arbitrarily. With stability and predictability, investment is
encouraged, jobs are created and consumers can fully enjoy the benefits
of competition choice and lower prices.
- More competitive, discouraging unfair practices, such as export
subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share; the
issues are complex, and the rules try to establish what is fair or unfair,
and how governments can respond, in particular by charging additional
import duties calculated to compensate for damage caused by unfair
trade.

Activities
- More beneficial for less developed countries, giving them more time to
adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges; over three-quarters of
WTO members are developing countries and countries in transition to
market economies. The WTO agreements give them transition periods to
adjust to the more unfamiliar and, perhaps, difficult WTO provisions.
- Protect the environment, the WTOs agreements permit members to
take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health,
animal health and plant health. However, these measures must be applied
in the same way to both national and foreign businesses. In other words,
members must not use environmental protection measures as a means of
disguising protectionist policies