Presented By: Ashwini Wadekar Mayura Sawe Rajan Tripathi Nadeem Shaikh Namita Potdar

Established on 1st January 1995 at Geneva in Switzerland. Created by Uruguay rounds of negotiations (1984-96) under the Marrakech Agreement 1995.
153 Countries were members of the WTO as on 23 July 2008. (31 observers). Head of WTO Pascal Lamy (Director General).

The World Trade Organization is member driven, with decisions taken by General agreement among all member of governments and it deals with the rules of trade between nations at a global or near global level. But there is more to it than that.

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 worlds trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.

It is an organization for trade opening.

It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other.

Non-discrimination.
More open.

Predictable and transparent.

More competitive.

More beneficial for less developed countries.

Protect the environment.

Administering WTO trade agreements.

Forum for trade negotiations. Handling trade disputes.

Monitoring national trade policies.

Technical assistance and training for developing countries. Cooperation with other international organizations. Acting as a Watchdog of International Trade.
Maintaining Trade Related database.

1.

Without Discrimination: A country should not discriminate between its trading partners
Most-Favoured-Nation/MFN Status National Treatment

2.

Freer: Barriers coming down through negotiation

Progressive Liberalization

3.

Predictable: Foreign companies, investors, and governments should be confident that trade barriers (including tariffs and non-tariff barriers) should not be raised arbitrarily; tariff rates and market-opening commitments are bound in the WTO

4.

More Competitive: Discouraging unfair practices such as export subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share
More Beneficial for Less Developed Countries: Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility, and special privileges. Ex: Uruguay Round

5.

WTO operates on a One Country, One Vote system, but no actual voting done. Theoretically, decision making is by consensus.
Decision making not by consensus of all members, but by a process of informal negotiations between small groups of countries - "Green Room.

Subjects:

Agriculture Telecommunications Government Purchases Industrial standards & product safety Health & Safety Measures Helping least developed and food importing Countries. Textile and Clothing

The WTO agreements are lengthy and complex because they are legal texts covering a wide range of activities.

Ministerial Conference

Dispute Settlement Body

General Council

Trade policy review body

Committee on T&D and T&E

Goods council

Intellectual property council

Services council

Start of Doha Round: 4th Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar in Nov 2001 Before Doha Major issues:
Agriculture - for both developing and developed countries. Compulsory licensing of medicines and patent protection (now

resolved). Provisions giving special and differential treatment to developing countries; Problems that developing countries are having in implementing current trade obligations

It has been predicted that this trade round will result in a net gain globally.

Commonly viewed as irrelevant.

Lack of Transparency. WTO is sometimes viewed as a rushed reaction to international trade due to WWII. Drastic wealth inequalities between members
Trying to make the developing countries catch up to

the developed