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.
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The WTO is the international organization charged with enforcing a t of trade rules including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Trade Related Intellectual Property Measures (TRIPS), General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), among others. WTO was established in 1995 in the”Uruguay Round” of GATT negotiations.
Prior to the Uruguay Round, GATT rules focud primarily on tariffs and quotas. Connsus of GATT members was required to enforce the rules. The Uruguay Round expanded GATT rules to cover what is known in trade jargon as “non-tariff barriers to trade.” The are food safety laws, product standards, and rules on u of tax dollars, investment policy and other domestic laws that impact trade. The WTO’s rules limit what non-tariff policies countries can implement or maintain.
What is the GATT and how does is relate to the WTO?
It is probably best to be clear from the start that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was two things: (1) an international agreement, i.e. a document tting out the rules for conducting international trade, and (2) an international organization created later to support the agreement. The text of the agreement could be compared to law, the organization was like parliament and the courts combined in a single body. 交换机是什么
As its history shows, the attempt to create a fully fledged international trade agency in the 1940s failed. But GATT's drafters agreed that they wanted to u the new rules and disciplines, if only provisionally. Then government officials needed to meet to discuss issues related to the agreement, and to hold trade negotiations. The needed cretarial support, leading to the creation of an ad hoc organization - that continued to exist for almost half a century.
GATT, the international agency, no longer exists. It has now been replaced by the World Trade Organization.
汇源董事长GATT, the agreement, does still exist, but it is no longer the main t of rules for international trade. And it has been updated.
如何选择职业What happened? When GATT was created after the Second World War, international commerce was dominated by trade in goods. Since then, trade in rvices - transport, travel, banking, insurance, telecommunications transport, and consultancy and so on - has become much more important. So has trade in ideas - inventions and designs, and goods and rvices incorporating this "intellectual property". The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade always dealt with trade in goods, and it still does. It has been amended and incorporated into the new WTO agreements. The updated GATT lives alongside the new General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The WTO brings the three together within a single organization, a single t of rules and a single system for resolving disputes. In short, the WTO is not a simple extension of GATT. It is much more.
While GATT no longer exists as an international organization, the GATT agreement lives
永远造句on. The old text is now called "GATT 1947". The updated version is called "GATT 1994". Moreover, GATT's key principles have been adopted by the agreements on rvices and intellectual property. The include non-discrimination, transparency and predictability. As the more mature WTO developed out of GATT, you could say that the child is the father of the man.
Main differences between the WTO and GATT
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- GATT was ad hoc and provisional. The General Agreement was never ratified in members' parliaments, and it contained no provisions for the creation of an organization. - The WTO and its agreements are permanent. As an international organization, the WTO has a sound legal basis becau members have ratified the WTO agreements, and the agreements themlves describe how the WTO is to function. - The WTO has "members". GATT had "contracting parties", underscoring the fact that officially GATT was a legal text. - GATT dealt with trade in goods. The WTO covers rvices and intellectual property as well. - The WTO dispute ttlement system is faster, more automatic than the old GATT system. Its rulings cannot be blocked.
Who are the members of the WTO?
三落实Currently there are 142 member countries in the WTO and 32 nations with obrver status (as of July 26, 2001).
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What are some of the main reasons people are against WTO?
An international body for regulating world trade is a good idea, if only to stop the rich countries bullying the poor, but the WTO as currently constituted is failing to do that.
Dogmatic attachment to liberalization The 15 WTO agreements were drawn up at the height of the enthusiasm for free market economics, and are a product of dogmatic attachment to liberalization and deregulation. The world may have moved on since then, but the WTO has not.
Northern double standards According to the UN, northern protectionism is robbing the developing world of an export income of $2bn a day, many times more than the total inflows of aid. Developing countries feel cheated.
