BIZCHINA / Organizations
World Trade Organization
(wto.org)
Updated: 2006-11-10 16:31
Special coverage:
WTO Package
WTO Commitments
Related readings:
WTO push a 'win-win' for nation
'China needs to play bigger role in WTO'
Lamy: China fulfilling WTO commitments well
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international
organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its
heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the
world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to
help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct
their business.
Is it a bird, is it a plane?
There are a number of ways of looking at the WTO. It's an organization
for liberalizing trade. It's a forum for governments to negotiate trade
agreements. It's a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a
system of trade rules. (But it's not Superman, just in case anyone
thought it could solve -- or cause -- all the world's problems!)
Above all, it's a negotiating forum ...
Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments go, to try to
sort out the trade problems they face with each other. The first step is
to talk. The WTO was born out of negotiations, and everything the WTO
does is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the WTO's current work
comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier
negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The
WTO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the "Doha
Development Agenda" launched in 2001.
Where countries have faced trade barriers and wanted them lowered, the
negotiations have helped to liberalize trade. But the WTO is not just
about liberalizing trade, and in some circumstances its rules support
maintaining trade barriers -- for example to protect consumers or prevent
the spread of disease.
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(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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