Role of World Trade Organisation and Criticisms

Running head: ECONOMICS
Economics
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ECONOMICS
Discuss the role of the World Trade Organisation and the criticisms that have been levelled
against it.
Introduction
The world trade organization (WTO) is known as the global organization which is
made up of more than 160 countries which is known to deal with the rules of trade between
nations. One of the objectives of WTO is to make sure that the trade flows run smoothly and
are predictable. The World Trade Organization known to have born out of General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which have established in the year 1947 (Altbach
2015). The GATT had been the part of Bretton Woods which comprised of the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The purpose of the world trade organization is to make
sure that the global trade commences smoothly, predictably as well as freely. It also aims to
create economic peace as well as stability in the world through a multilateral system. The
WTO is known to replace GATT as the global trading body in the year 1995. It is also the
only global international organization which deals with the rules of trade present between the
nations. The goal of WTO is to help the producers of goods and services as well as importers
and exports to conduct their business.
Discussions
Roles of WTO
The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization which is known
to be concerned with the regulation of international trade taking place between various
countries. It is known to regulate trade in goods and services and also liberalise world trade.
One of the main function of the world trade organization is that it cooperates with the
international institutions like IMF for achieving greater coherence in the global economic
policy making. WTO is also known to provide a forum for settling various disputes

ECONOMICS
(Goldstein 2017). Free trade is known to ignore social as well as cultural factors: the free
trade proposed by the world trade organizations should be restricted since, it enables the
countries for maintain cultural diversity. The WTO is also known as the centre of economic
research and analysis. It is also known to serve as a mediator between the nations when
various issues like protectionism, subsidies and trade barriers exists.
Doha Round
The World Trade Organization is known to have launched some negotiations in the
fourth ministerial conference in Doha in the year 2001 which is also termed as Doha
Development Round. The initial agenda is known to comprise of trade liberalization along
with new rule making. One of the main object of the Doha Development Round is to reduce
trade barriers around the world and also help in increasing the global trade ( Kerremans and
Switky 2018). The aim is to put less developed and the developing countries in a better
place. Before the Doha round, the negotiations had been known to be under way on trade in
agriculture as well as trade in services.
The Uruguay Round was known to be the 8th round of the multilateral trade negotiations
which had been known to be conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (Bauer and Ege 2016). The Uruguay Round have led to the formation of
the World Trade Organization where GATT had been known to be the integral part of the
WTO agreements. After that Doha Development Round was the next trade round which is
known to start in 2001.
Functions of the world trade organizations
One of the major function of the world trade organization is that it shall administer the
trade policy review mechanism. It is also known to provide the forum for negotiations among
the members (Barlow et al. 2018). The WTO should be also facilitate the implementation,