Final Presentation WoRd File WTO
Final Presentation WoRd File WTO
Final Presentation WoRd File WTO
Def of WTO :
An international agency which encourages trade between member nations,
administers global trade agreements and resolves disputes when they arise.
Director:
Pascal Lamy is the fifth Director-General of the WTO. His appointment took
effect on 1 September 2005 for a four-year term. In April 2009 WTO members
reappointed Mr Lamy for a second four-year term, starting on 1 September 2009
Gauri
Functions of WTO
Sneha
Objectives of WTO
Nikita
The structure of the WTO is dominated by its highest authority, the Ministerial
Conference, composed of representatives of all WTO members, which is required
to meet at least every two years and which can take decisions on all matters under
any of the multilateral trade agreements.
The day-to-day work of the WTO, however, falls to a number of subsidiary bodies;
principally the General Council, also composed of all WTO members, which is
required to report to the Ministerial Conference. As well as conducting its regular
work on behalf of the Ministerial Conference, the General Council convenes in two
particular forms - as the Dispute Settlement Body, to oversee the dispute settlement
procedures and as the Trade Policy Review Body to conduct regular reviews of the
trade policies of individual WTO members.
The General Council delegates responsibility to three other major bodies - namely
the Councils for Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property. The Council for Goods oversees the implementation and
functioning of all the agreements (Annex 1A of the WTO Agreement) covering
trade in goods, though many such agreements have their own specific overseeing
bodies. The latter two Councils have responsibility for their respective WTO
agreements and may establish their own subsidiary bodies as necessary.
Three other bodies are established by the Ministerial Conference and report to the
General Council. The Committee on Trade and Development is concerned with
issues relating to the developing countries and, especially, to the "least-developed"
among them. The Committee on Balance of Payments is responsible for
consultations between WTO members and countries which take trade-restrictive
measures, under Articles XII and XVIII of GATT, in order to cope with balance-ofpayments difficulties. Finally, issues relating to WTO's financing and budget are
dealt with by a Committee on Budget.
Each of the four plurilateral agreements of the WTO - those on civil aircraft,
government procurement, dairy products and bovine meat - establish their own
management bodies which are required to report to the General Council.
Prajakta
WTO PRINCIPLES
1. Most-favoured-nation (MFN):
Treating other people equally . Under the WTO agreements, countries cannot
normally discriminate between their trading partners. Grant someone a special
favour (such as a lower customs duty rate for one of their products) and you have
to do the same for all other WTO members.
This principle is known as most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment (see box). It is
so important that it is the first article of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), which governs trade in goods. MFN is also a priority in the General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) (Article 2) and the Agreement on TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (Article 4), although in
each agreement the principle is handled slightly differently. Together, those three
agreements cover all three main areas of trade handled by the WTO.
2. National treatment:
Treating foreigners and locals equally Imported and locally-produced goods
should be treated equally at least after the foreign goods have entered the
market. The same should apply to foreign and domestic services, and to foreign
and local trademarks, copyrights and patents. This principle of national treatment
(giving others the same treatment as ones own nationals) is also found in all the
three main WTO agreements (Article 3 of GATT, Article 17 of GATS and Article 3
of TRIPS), although once again the principle is handled slightly differently in each
of these.National treatment only applies once a product, service or item of
intellectual property has entered the market. Therefore, charging customs duty on
an import is not a violation of national treatment even if locally-produced products
are not charged an equivalent tax.
3.Freer trade:
A new WTO Secretariat study published today (19 June) finds that trade
liberalization helps poor countries to catch up with rich ones and that this faster
economic growth helps to alleviate poverty. WTO Director-General Mike Moore
said: This report confirms that although trade alone may not be enough to
eradicate poverty, it is essential if poor people are to have any hope of a brighter
future. For example, 30 years ago, South Korea was as poor as Ghana. Today,
thanks to trade led growth, it is as rich as Portugal.
4. Transparency :
The Singapore Ministerial Conference of 1996 set up the multilateral Working
Group on Transparency in Government Procurement to conduct a study on
transparency in government procurement practices, taking into account national
policies and, on that basis, to develop elements suitable for inclusion in an
appropriate agreement.
Milan
5.LDCs
In the last few years WTO members have concentrated a lot of efforts into
improving the condition of least-developed countries (LDCs) inside the
multilateral trading system, both in terms of market access and technical
assistance. Measures taken in the framework of the WTO can help LDCs increase
their exports to other WTO members and attract investment.
6. BOP :
Countries facing balance-of-payment difficulty may apply import restrictions under
provisions in the GATT 1994 agreement and under the General Agreement on
Trade in Services (GATS).
7.ENVIRONMENT
The WTO has no specific agreement dealing with the environment. However, the
WTO agreements confirm governments right to protect the environment, provided
certain conditions are met, and a number of them include provisions dealing with
environmental concerns. The objectives of sustainable development and
environmental protection are important enough to be stated in the preamble to the
Agreement Establishing the WTO.
8. Dismantling Trade Barrier :
Technical regulations and product standards may vary from country to country.
Having many different regulations and standards makes life difficult for producers
and exporters. If regulations are set arbitrarily, they could be used as an excuse for
protectionism. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade tries to ensure that
regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures do not create
unnecessary obstacles, while also providing members with the right to implement
measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives, such as the protection of human
health and safety, or the environment.
Anand
Key Subj In Wto:
1.Agriculture :
The agriculture negotiations are difficult because of the wide range of views and
interests among member governments, the large number of active participants, and
the complexity of many issues. The aim is to contribute to further liberalization of
agricultural trade, allowing countries to compete on quality and price rather than
on the size of their subsidies. That is particularly the case for many developing
countries whose economies depend on an increasingly diverse range of primary
and processed agricultural products, exported to an increasing variety of markets,
including to other developing countries.
At the heart of the talks are the three pillars:
market access: cutting tariffs, expanding tariff-quotas and various
flexibilities for these
exports subsidies (officially export competition): eliminating these and
disciplining export credit, food aid and state trading enterprises to eliminate
hidden export subsidies
domestic support: cutting supports that distort trade (by stimulating overproduction and artificially raising or lowering prices) and disciplining forms
of support that could distort trade.
Priya
Parth