The WTO, International

Trade

PlanINTRODUCTION, What is the WTO?• 1.     History, The multilateral trading system—

past, present and future • 2.     The organization

– a.    Structure – b.    Secretariat

• 3.     The WTO agreements – a.    Goods– b.    Services– c.     Intellectual property– d.    Dispute settlement– e.     Policy review

• 4.     Developing countries– a.    Development and trade

CONCLUSION,5 benefits of the WTO trading system

What is the WTO? The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global

international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations.

Location Geneva, Switzerland

Established 1 January 1995

Created by Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94)

Membership 150 countries on 11 January 2007

Budget 175 million Swiss francs for 2006

Secretariat staff 635

Head Pascal Lamy (Director-General)

The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.  

HistoryThe World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. One of the youngest of the international organizations, the WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in the wake of the Second World War.

• 1997 - Agreement of 69 government on telecommunications services.

- 40 governments concluded negotiations for tariff-free trade - 70 members concluded a financial services• 2000 : Development of agricultural agreements are active. • 2001 : Treatment of the agricultural agreements

The organisation

Structure

• The WTO has nearly 150 members, accounting for over 97% of world trade. Around 30 others are negotiating membership.

• Decisions are made by the entire membership. This is typically by consensus. A majority vote is also possible but it has never been used in the WTO, and was extremely rare under the WTO’s predecessor, GATT.

• The WTO’s agreements have been ratified in all members’ parliaments.

Secretariat The Secretariat’s main duties are :

  - to supply technical support for the various councils and committees and the ministerial conferences,

- to provide technical assistance for developing countries,

    - to analyze world trade,

    -   to explain WTO affairs to the public and media.  

The Secretariat also provides some forms of legal assistance in the dispute settlement process and advises governments wishing to become members of the WTO.

The WTO agreements

1/ Goods• From 1947 to 1994, GATT was the forum for

negotiating lower customs duty rates and other trade barriers

• Since 1995, the updated GATT has become the

WTO’s umbrella agreement for trade in goods

2/ Services•Every services can now enjoy the same principles of freer and fairer ( plus libre et plus loyalement ) trade that originally only applied to trade in goods.

•These principles appear in the new General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

•WTO members have also made individual commitments under GATS stating which of their services sectors they are willing (disposer) to open to foreign competition, and how open those markets are.

3/ Intellectual property   •The WTO’s intellectual property

agreement amounts to rules for trade and investment in ideas and creativity.

•The rules state how copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical names used to identify products, industrial designs, integrated circuit layout-designs and undisclosed information such as trade secrets — “intellectual property” — should be protected when trade is involved.

4/ Dispute settlement (Règlement des différends) 

•The WTO’s procedure for resolving trade quarrels under the Dispute Settlement Understanding is vital for enforcing the rules and therefore for ensuring that trade flows smoothly.The system encourages countries to settle their differences through consultation.

5/ Policy review 

•The Trade Policy Review Mechanism’s purpose is to improve transparency, to create a greater understanding of the policies that countries are adopting, and to assess their impact .

•All WTO members must undergo periodic scrutiny, each review containing reports by the country concerned and the WTO Secretariat.

•Over three quarters of WTO members are developing or least-developed countries.

•WTO committee on trade and development, assisted by a sub-committee on least-developed countries, looks at developing countries’ special needs.

Development and trade  

Developing countries

5 benefits of the WTO trading system

1. The system helps to keep the peace

2 fundamental principles of the trading system:

- helping trade to flow smoothly, - providing countries with a constructive and

fair outlet for dealing with disputes over trade issues.

=> Peace result of this

2.Freer trade cuts the cost of living

Protectionism is expensive: it raises prices.

The WTO’s principles:- lowers trade barriers through negotiation - applies the principle of non-discrimination.

The result is reduced costs of production

3. It gives consumers more choice, and a broader range of qualities

to choose from Thanks to WTO we can :

• IMPORTS (fruits and vegetables out of season, foods, clothing, all sorts of household goods, books, music, movies, and so on.)

• EXPORTS

Imports and exports allow us more choice.

The fact that there is additional income means that resources are available for governments to redistribute

Lowering trade barriers allows trade to increase, which adds to incomes

4.Trade raises incomes

5.Trade stimulates economic growth, and that can be good news for employment

Trade has the potential to create more jobs by:

• Economic growth• lower trade barriers

But it is also true that some jobs are lost even when trade is expanding.

Nevertheless, protectionism is not the way to tackle employment problems.