World Trade Organization (WTO)
Posted by Ripon Abu Hasnat on Friday, June 13, 2014 | 0 comments
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is
an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade.
The organization officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakech
Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which
commenced in 1948. The
organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it
provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements, and a
dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participant's adherence to WTO
agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and
ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on
derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round
(1986–1994).
The organization is attempting to
complete negotiations on the Doha Development Round, which was launched in 2001
with an explicit focus on addressing the needs of developing countries. As of
June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remained uncertain: the work programme
lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed,
and the round is still incomplete. The conflict between free trade
on industrial goods and services but retention of protectionism on farm
subsidies to domestic agricultural sector (requested by developed countries)
and the substantiation of the international liberalization of fair trade on agricultural
products (requested by developing countries) remain the major obstacles. These
points of contention have hindered any progress to launch new WTO negotiations
beyond the Doha Development Round. As a result of this impasse, there has been
an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements signed. As of July 2012, there were
various negotiation groups in the WTO system for the current agricultural trade
negotiation which is in the condition of stalemate.
WTO's current Director-General is
Roberto Azevêdo, who leads a staff of over 600 people in Geneva, Switzerland. A trade
facilitation agreement known as the Bali Package was reached by all members on
7 December 2013, the first comprehensive agreement in the organization's
history.
You can subscribe by e-mail to receive news updates and breaking stories.
0 comments for "World Trade Organization (WTO)"
Leave a reply