Subject: World Trade Organization

Chapter -1 Total hour allotted -1 hour

For B.Sc.-IIIrd Year Students

Prepared by- Captain Vartul Dixit

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization

dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements,

negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their

parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and

importers conduct their business.

WTO Head office
‘WTO’ Head office is in
‘Geneva’, Switzerland.
It was established on
1-January-1995.
It has 164 members.
 History of ‘WTO’
The WTO was born out of negotiations, and everything the
WTO does is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the
WTO’s current work comes from the 1986–94 negotiations
called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The
WTO was also the host for ‘Doha Development Agenda’
‘Doha Development Agenda’ was launched in 2001.
Where countries have faced trade barriers and wanted them
lowered, the negotiations have helped to open markets for
trade. But the WTO is not just about opening markets, and
in some circumstances its rules support maintaining trade
barriers — for example, to protect consumers or prevent
the spread of disease.
WTO Structure
‘WTO’ comprises following:
Ministerial conference;
General council;
Secretariat
Dispute settlement board
Services council
Trip council etc.
WORK: Promote to trade, making of policies and Review of same.
 Main function of WTO
Controlling administration of WTO trade agreements;;
To have forum for trade negotiations;
The efficient handling of trade disputes;
Monitoring national trade policies;
Technical assistance and training for developing countries;
Cooperation with other international organizations.
 Ministerial Conferences
The topmost decision-making body of the ‘WTO’ is the Ministerial Conference, which usually
meets every two years. It brings together all members of the ‘WTO’, all of which are countries
or customs unions. The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of
the multilateral trade agreements.
 The WTO General Council

The General Council is the WTO’s highest-level decision-making body in Geneva,

meeting regularly to carry out the functions of the ‘WTO’. It has representatives

(usually ambassadors or equivalent) from all member governments and has the

authority to act on behalf of the ministerial conference which only meets about every

two years.

The General Council also meets, under different rules, as the ‘Dispute Settlement

Body’ and as the ‘Trade Policy Review Body’.

 Secretariat common purpose
The responsibility of the ‘WTO Secretariat’ is to provide top-quality, independent
support to ‘WTO’ member governments on all of the activities that are carried out
by the Organization, and to serve the ‘WTO’ with professionalism, impartiality and
integrity.
The Secretariat is a multicultural team of highly-qualified individuals who possess
the wide range of skills, knowledge and experience required to handle the
Secretariat's responsibilities and to work together as an efficient and diligent
international civil service.
WTO Director general

‘Roberto Azevedo’ is the sixth

Director-General of the WTO. He
became Director-General on 1
September 2013, serving a four-year
term. At a meeting of the General
Council in February 2017, WTO
members agreed by consensus to
appoint Roberto Azevedo as
Director-General for a second four-
year term, which started on 1
September 2017.
WTO- Deputy Director General

The four Deputy Directors-General are Yonov Frederick Agah of Nigeria, Karl

Brauner of Germany, Alan Wolff of the United States and Yi Xiaozhun of China.
 Dispute settlement in WTO

Closer relationships have huge benefits but they can also bring friction: more trade increases the
possibility of disputes. In the past, such disputes have erupted into serious conflict. But today,
international trade tension is reduced because countries can turn to organizations, in particular the
WTO, to settle their trade disputes.
Before World War II, there was no forum for global trade negotiations, and no legal procedure for
settling disputes.
After the war, the world’s community of trading nations negotiated trade rules which are now
entrusted to the WTO. Settling their differences by talking and by agreeing on rules is vital for
reducing tension.
Those rules also include an obligation for members to bring their disputes to the WTO and not to act
unilaterally.
Dispute settlement is sometimes described as the jewel in the WTO’s crown. It’s the central pillar of
the multilateral trading system, and the WTO’s unique contribution to the stability of the global
economy.
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WTO dispute settlement focuses countries’ attention on the rules. Once a verdict
has been announced, countries concentrate on complying with the rules, and
perhaps later renegotiating them — rather than declaring war on each other.
Well over 400 disputes have been brought to the WTO since it was set up in
1995. Without a means of tackling these constructively and harmoniously, some
could have spiraled into more serious political conflict.
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The fact that the disputes are based on WTO agreements means that there is a clear
basis for judging who is right or wrong. Once the judgement has been made, the
agreements provide the focus for any further actions that need to be taken.
The increasing number of disputes brought to the WTO does not reflect increasing
tension in the world. Rather, it reflects the closer economic ties throughout the
world, the WTO’s expanding membership and the fact that countries have faith in
the system to solve their differences.
Sometimes the exchanges between the countries in conflict can be acrimonious, but
they always aim to conform to the agreements and commitments that they
themselves negotiated.