Overview of The WTO

 Objective of presentation

 WTO: The Beginnings

 Growth in Trade Underway

 A New Multilateral Organization

 The WTO: what is it?

 How does the WTO function?

 Principles of the Trading System

 Provisions for developing countries

 Progressing by packages

 The Round to end all rounds

 The WTO Agreement

 Liberalising trade in goods

 Textiles - back in the mainstream

 Agriculture: fairer markets for all

 Trade remedies

 Standards and procedures

 Administrative procedures

 Services: rules for growth and investment

 Services: the key rules

 Services: Better Access to Markets

 Intellectual Property: protection and enforcement of rights

 TRIPS: what does it cover?

 Settling Disputes: the heart of the system

 Meetings of Ministers

  Singapore Ministerial

 Geneva and Seattle Ministerials

 Doha Ministerial Meeting

 Cancun Ministerial Meeting

 Recent Developments

The WTO: what is it?

Different things to different people

Perhaps it is important to recognize at an early stage that the WTO is certainly not without its critics. In general terms we frequently hear what the" WTO" does and does not do, or what it should and should not do. The criticisms include the accusation that the WTO is non transparent, non democratic and non accountable to the public. We hear that the WTO is harmful for the environment and not sufficiently supportive of economic development. The list of criticisms is long. While these criticisms deserve a response, this is not the objective of this presentation.

Nevertheless, it is important to make the following point. When we talk of the WTO, the World Trade  organization means very different things in different contexts.

 Agreements

For example, the WTO is a set of agreements that create legally binding rights and obligations for all members. So too, do the commitments to provide an agreed degree of openness of domestic markets to imported goods and services. The agreements and commitments have been negotiated multilaterally and agreed to by all WTO members.

 Negotiations

The WTO is also an intergovernmental forum where delegations from member countries  meet to discuss and negotiate a number of trade-related matters. In the Trade Policy Review Body, for example, governments periodically review the trade policies of other members. They also discuss other recent developments in the multilateral trading system.

 A Secretariat

The WTO is also sometimes referred to in the context of a relatively small secretariat. The 500 staff members have neither enforcement powers nor any role in the interpretation of the legal rights and obligations of members. It has an annual budget of less than US $ 90 million. It is one of the smaller international organizations—dwarfed by the size of the World Bank, United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and numerous other organizations. It is located in Geneva and headed by a Director General.

 Above all ... Governments

But most importantly, the WTO comprises almost 150 sovereign states, the vast majority of which are democratically elected. They have collectively agreed to conduct their trade according to multilaterally agreed rules that have been agreed to on a consensus basis. After agreement is struck between trade negotiators, the agreements are then ratified by the domestic parliaments of all WTO member countries. To criticize the "WTO" is - in practical terms - to criticize the collective action of close to 150 sovereign states acting on the basis of consensus and according to rules accepted by their national parliaments.