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11/5/2001 The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organisation 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 with the goal of achieving a more peaceful and accountable economic world. By lowering trade barriers, the WTO system also aims to break down other barriers between peoples and nations. The agreements between the 130 members of the WTO are at the heart of today's multilateral trading system. They form the legal ground-rules for international commerce. These agreements are essentially contracts, which guarantee member countries important trade rights, and bind governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits. The current set of agreements were the outcome of the 1986-94 Uruguay Round negotiations. They included a major revision of the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and created new rules for dealing with trade in services, relevant aspects of intellectual property, dispute settlement, and trade policy reviews. The complete set runs to some 30,000 pages consisting of about 60 agreements and separate commitments made by individual members in specific areas such as lower customs duty rates and services market-opening. Decisions are made by the entire membership, typically by consensus. Although a majority vote is also possible, it has never been used in the WTO. These decisions are then ratified in all members' parliaments. The purpose of such trade agreements is to allow members to conduct their business within a non-discriminatory trading system that spells out their rights and their obligations. The WTO also acts as a forum for trade negotiations and helps to resolve trade disputes. Trade friction is channelled into the WTO's dispute settlement process where the focus is on interpreting agreements and commitments, and how to ensure that countries' trade policies conform with them. That way, the risk of disputes spilling over into political or military conflict is reduced. Today the 130 WTO members account for over 90% of world trade. Three quarters of the WTO membership is made up of developing or least-developed countries. Approximately 30 other nations are currently negotiating for membership. The
WTO's top level decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference,
which consists of representatives of all member governments and
which meets at least once every two years. Below this is the General
Council, which meets several times a year in the Geneva headquarters,
and incorporates the Trade Policy Review Body and the Dispute Settlement
Body. At the next level, the Goods Council, Services Council and
Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Council report to the General Council.
Numerous specialised committees, working groups and working parties
also meet to deal with the individual agreements and other areas
such as the environment, development, membership applications and
regional trade agreements. ©EuropaWorld 2001 - Copyright Policy
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