WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO)
The
World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization designed to supervised and liberalize international trade. The
WTO came into being on 1 January 1995, and is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1947, and continued to operate for almost five decades as a de facto international organization.
The
World Trade Organization deals with the rules of trade between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in charge of policing member countries’ adherence to all the
WTO agreements, signed by the majority of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. Most of the issues that the
WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round. The organization is currently working with its members on a new trade negotiation called the Doha Development Agenda (Doha round), launched in 2001.
DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
The power to settle international disputes with binding authority distinguishes the
World Trade Organisation from most other intergovernmental institutions. The Understanding on Rules and procedure governing the Settlement of
Disputes gives the
WTO unprecedented power to resolve trade-related conflicts between nations and assign penalties and compensation to the parties involved.
Dispute settlement is administered by a
Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) that consists of the WTO’s General Council. The DSB has the authority to” establish panels, adopt panel and Appellate Body reports. Maintain surveillance of implementation of ruling and recommendations, and authorize suspension of concessions and other obligations.” The
dispute Settlement system aims to resolve disputes by clarifying the rules of the multilateral trading system; it cannot legislate or promulgate new rules.