llaue Reyulatlohs and Industrial Policies Graded Assignment | Due Sunday 03.18.1
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llaue Reyulatlohs and Industrial Policies Graded Assignment | Due Sunday 03.18.18 at 11.00 PM Attempts:2 3. Basic facts about the WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) was built on the basis of the General Agreement on Tarifs and Trade (GATT) Keep the Highest: 216 AaAa and, thus, inherited many of its features. Still, the WTO proved to be a very distinct institution. Which of the following are the unique properties of the WTO? Check all that apply Administers a unified package of agreements Brings trade in services, intellectual property, and investment into the multilateral trading system Acts as a membership organization Includes side agreements Acts as a provisional treaty According to the GATT, regional trade agreements: O Can be formed only as free-trade areas and not as customs unions O can be formed even if the duties with outside parties are more restrictive than pnor to the formation O Cannot be formed Can be formed if the duties with outside parties are not more restrictive than prior to the formationExplanation / Answer
BELOW IS BRIEF WRITE UP ON WTO AS QUOTED BY WTO WEBSITE :
WHAT IS WTO :
Where countries have faced trade barriers and wanted them lowered, the negotiations have helped to open markets for trade. But the WTO is not just about opening markets, and in some circumstances its rules support maintaining trade barriers — for example, to protect consumers or prevent the spread of disease.
At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations. These documents provide the legal ground rules for international commerce. They are essentially contracts, binding governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits. Although negotiated and signed by governments, the goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business, while allowing governments to meet social and environmental objectives.
The system’s overriding purpose is to help trade flow as freely as possible — so long as there are no undesirable side effects — because this is important for economic development and well-being. That partly means removing obstacles. It also means ensuring that individuals, companies and governments know what the trade rules are around the world, and giving them the confidence that there will be no sudden changes of policy. In other words, the rules have to be ‘transparent’ and predictable.
Trade relations often involve conflicting interests. Agreements, including those painstakingly negotiated in the WTO system, often need interpreting. The most harmonious way to settle these differences is through some neutral procedure based on an agreed legal foundation. That is the purpose behind the dispute settlement process written into the WTO agreements.
WHAT DOES WTO DO :
Trade negotiations
The WTO agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell out the principles of liberalization, and the permitted exceptions. They include individual countries’ commitments to lower customs tariffs and other trade barriers, and to open and keep open services markets. They set procedures for settling disputes. These agreements are not static; they are renegotiated from time to time and new agreements can be added to the package. Many are now being negotiated under the Doha Development Agenda, launched by WTO trade ministers in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.
Implementation and monitoring
WTO agreements require governments to make their trade policies transparent by notifying the WTO about laws in force and measures adopted. Various WTO councils and committees seek to ensure that these requirements are being followed and that WTO agreements are being properly implemented. All WTO members must undergo periodic scrutiny of their trade policies and practices, each review containing reports by the country concerned and the WTO Secretariat.
Dispute settlement
The WTO’s procedure for resolving trade quarrels under the Dispute Settlement Understanding is vital for enforcing the rules and therefore for ensuring that trade flows smoothly. Countries bring disputes to the WTO if they think their rights under the agreements are being infringed. Judgements by specially appointed independent experts are based on interpretations of the agreements and individual countries’ commitments.
Building trade capacity
WTO agreements contain special provision for developing countries, including longer time periods to implement agreements and commitments, measures to increase their trading opportunities, and support to help them build their trade capacity, to handle disputes and to implement technical standards. The WTO organizes hundreds of technical cooperation missions to developing countries annually. It also holds numerous courses each year in Geneva for government officials. Aid for Trade aims to help developing countries develop the skills and infrastructure needed to expand their trade.
Outreach
The WTO maintains regular dialogue with non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians, other international organizations, the media and the general public on various aspects of the WTO and the ongoing Doha negotiations, with the aim of enhancing cooperation and increasing awareness of WTO activities.
WHAT DOES WTO STAND FOR :
Non-discrimination
A country should not discriminate between its trading partners and it should not discriminate between its own and foreign products, services or nationals.
More open
Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious ways of encouraging trade; these barriers include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such as import bans or quotas that restrict quantities selectively.
Predictable and transparent
Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be raised arbitrarily. With stability and predictability, investment is encouraged, jobs are created and consumers can fully enjoy the benefits of competition — choice and lower prices.
More competitive
Discouraging ‘unfair’ practices, such as export subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share; the issues are complex, and the rules try to establish what is fair or unfair, and how governments can respond, in particular by charging additional import duties calculated to compensate for damage caused by unfair trade.
More beneficial for less developed countries
Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges; over three-quarters of WTO members are developing countries and countries in transition to market economies. The WTO agreements give them transition periods to adjust to the more unfamiliar and, perhaps, difficult WTO provisions.
Protect the environment
The WTO’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health. However, these measures must be applied in the same way to both national and foreign businesses. In other words, members must not use environmental protection measures as a means of disguising protectionist policies.
THERE ARE 164 MEMBER COUNTRIES IN THE WTO .
On basis of above , the unique properties of WTO are :
ADMINISTERS A UNIFIED PACKAGE OF AGREEMENTS
BRINGS TRADE IN SERVICES , INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INVESTMENT INTO MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM
ACTS AS A MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION
Article XXIV of original GATT article dealing with Regional trade agreement covers provisions for “ Territorial application – Frontier Traffic – Customs unions and free trade areas”
Therefore the option “can be formed only as free trade areas and not s customs union “ is not a correct answer .
According to GATT, regional trade agreements “ can be formed if the duties with outside parties are not more restrictive than prior to the formation “
ADMINISTERS A UNIFIED PACKAGE OF AGREEMENTS
BRINGS TRADE IN SERVICES , INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INVESTMENT INTO MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM
ACTS AS A MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION
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