The World Trade Organization Essay Example

The World Trade Organization

Lecturer:

The World Trade organization (WTO)

From the presentation, the most interesting aspect was the manner in which the WTO can be viewed and it is evident that it can be viewed as an organization aimed at liberalizing trade, as a forum, which governments can use in negotiating trade agreements, a place where governments can handle their trade disputes. The WTO operations are mainly guided by a system of trade rules. It is also interesting to note that the organization was formed on 1 January 1995 but at the same time, the trading system that is in place is older with half a century (World Trade Organization 2017). I also noted that despite having a number of functions there are those that are regarded as essential and this includes the overseeing of the administration, implementation as well as operation of covered agreements and offering a forum to enhance negotiations and for settling any forms of disputes (World Trade Organization 2015).

It was also interesting to note that a number of principles that includes trade that is devoid of discrimination, safety values, reciprocity, trasmspenanrny and binding and enforceable commitemnets mainly guides the operation of the WTO. It was also interesting to note that the WTO is a rule based and member driven organization and this means that all the members’ governments are involved before a decision is made and the rules formulated are as a result of the negotiation that takes place among the members. Another concept that is closely related to the one above is that the dispute settlement system in the organization is the results of the evolution of a number of rules, practices and procedures that have been developed for a long period and mostly during the era of the GATT (World Trade Organization 2015). It was interesting to know that the organization views dispute settlement is a central pillar when it comes to multilateral trading among the member states and in the some way it contributes to the stability in the global economy. In this way, the member states have an agreement that guide them and if any of the member states violates the trade rules, they will make use of a multilateral system when handling the disputes as opposed to taking action on unilaterally basis.

I also learned of the process that countries follow to become members of the WTO and the process is usually unique for each country and this is because the terms of accession are very dependent on the stage of economic development of a country and the trade regime that is in place (World Trade Organization 2017). In most instances, the process takes around five years but at times it last longer since some countries are not fully committed and if there are a number of political issues that are interring with the process. The country that took the shortest accession negation is the Kyrgyz Republic while Russia took the longest period. As of now the WTO has 22 observer governments and 164 members with the last country to join being Afghanistan which joined in the year 2016.

References

World Trade Organization 2015, Understanding the WTO, viewed 18 April 2017, https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/understanding_e.pdf

World Trade Organization 2017, The GATT years: from Havana to Marrakesh, viewed 18 April 2017, https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact4_e.htm