What is the WTO?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
World Trade Organization, international body established to promote and enforce global free trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was founded in 1993 by the Final Act that concluded the Uruguay Round (1986-1994) of multilateral negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1947, which it supersedes, and exists to administer and police the 28 free-trade agreements in the Final Act, oversee world trade practices, and adjudicate trade disputes referred to it by member states.
Based in Geneva, the WTO began operation on January 1, 1995, with its general council comprising 76 member states; by November 2000 it numbered 140 members. Unlike its predecessor, it is a formally constituted entity whose rules are legally binding on its member states, but it is independent of the United Nations. It provides a framework for the rule of law in international trade, expanding the brief of GATT regulations to include trade in services, intellectual property rights, and investment. Its standing general council is made up of member states’ ambassadors to the WTO, who also serve on various subsidiary and specialist committees. This is overseen by the ministerial conference that meets every two years and appoints the WTO’s director-general. Renato Ruggiero, former Italian trade minister, became the first full-time director-general of the WTO on May 1, 1995. He was replaced on September 1, 1999, by the former prime minister of New Zealand, Michael Moore. Trade disputes referred to the WTO are adjudicated by a disputes panel composed of WTO officials; nations can appeal against rulings to a WTO appellate body, whose decision is final.
In February 1997 the WTO concluded a landmark agreement liberalizing telecommunications trade between its members. In March 1999 the United States imposed sanctions on selected European Union (EU) goods following a WTO ruling against EU tariffs on bananas; the dispute broadened later the same month when the WTO ruled against an EU ban on US beef reared with growth hormones. In May 1999 the WTO suffered a severe internal dispute over the choice of a successor to Renato Ruggiero. At the Seattle summit in November 1999 the WTO’s failure to reach any kind of agreement on the opening up of previously protected areas of trade was seen as a major blow to the free-trade movement. In the same month China and the United States signed a historic agreement that paved the way for China to join the WTO. However, the deal still required formal approval from the United States, the EU, Canada, and other countries. As of early 2001, such agreement had still to materialize. The settlements administered by the WTO are expected to increase annual world trade by at least US$755 billion by the year 2002, raising annual world income by some US$235 billion.
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