The World Trade Organization, more commonly known as the WTO, is the most powerful legislative and judicial body in the world and is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. The 1986-1994 Uruguay Round of trade talks resulted in an agreement that led to the creation of the World Trade Organization on January 1st, 1995. The WTO is a multilateral institution with over 150 member countries that account for over 98% of world trade, and is charged with administering rules for trade among member countries – it is a powerful new global commerce agency, which transformed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into an enforceable global commerce code. Its creation was heralded as an epiphinal event in the legal regulation of the global economy. At present the World Trade Organization enforces over a dozen separate trade agreements and serves as a forum for ongoing talks to develop new trade agreements. The WTO promotes free trade by opening markets through the elimination of import tariffs. The overriding objective of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably – it does this by acting as a negotiating forum where trade issues are discussed and resolved.
This commentary is brought to you by trade leads from the Bags, Cases and Luggage section of our Business to Business Marketplace.
When unfair trade practices are uncovered, the WTO has the power to arbitrate and bind parties to settlements, which might include monetary awards to those member countries that have been disenfranchised. Case law of the World Trade Organization is now very extensive, running into hundreds of cases and resolutions, along with thousands of pages of testimony and findings.
As an organization the WTO has the opportunity to make significant contributions to the world ecological balance in a number of areas – For example, the WTO has made inroads into reducing global overfishing by reducing worldwide subsidies in the fishing sector. It is also seeing increasing pressure to involve itself in dealing with contentious and moral issues in realms such as genetically modified food crops.
