Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BACKGROUND
PRINCIPLES ADOPTED
BY GATT
World Trade
Organization (WTO)
The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the global
Functions of WTO:
Principles of WTO
Non discrimination
Free Trade: Promote free trade
between nations through negotiations.
Stability in the trading system:
Member countries are committed not
to raise tariff and non tariffs barriers
arbitrarily.
Promotion of Fair Competition: WTO
provides for transparent, fair and
undistorted competition.
It discourages unfair competitive
practices such as export subsidies and
dumping.
Patents
Copyright and other related Rights
Geographical Indications
Industrial Designs
Trade marks
Layout design of integrated circuits
Undisclosed information including trade secrets
Mode 2:
Consumption
abroad
Mode 3:
Commercial
presence
Supplier Presence
Service supplier
present within the
territory of the
Member
Evaluation of WTO
The WTO members now account for over 97% of
the international trade indicating the potential
of bringing about an orderly development of
international trade.
Benefits of WTO:
GATT / WTO has made significant achievements
in reducing tariff and non tariff barriers to
trade. Developing countries too have been
benefiting significantly.
Liberalization of investments has been fostering
economic growth of a number of countries.
It has a system in place to settle trade disputes
between nations.
It has a mechanism to deal with violation of
trade agreements.
Drawbacks:
Negotiations and decision making in
the WTO are dominated by the
developed countries.
Many developing countries do not
have the financial and knowledge
resources to effectively participate
in WTO discussions and negotiations.
Due to the dependence of
developing countries on the
developed ones, the developed
countries are able to resort to arms
twisting tactics.