The Future of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Free Trade

Running head: THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) AND
THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE
The FUTURE of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the FUTURE of International
Free Trade
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THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) AND THE
FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE
Future of World Trade Organisation:
The World Trade Organisation (WTO), an intergovernmental organisation, controls
international trade across the world. After replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), the organisation has been formed in 1995. This largest economic organisation
deals internationally with trade regulation in intellectual property, goods and services among
participant countries through giving a framework to negotiate trade agreements along with a
disagreement resolution process that can further lead participant countries’ adherence to
WTO agreements (Matsushita, Schoenbaum, Mavroidis & Hahn, 2015). Participant
countries’ representatives have signed these agreements while parliaments of those respective
countries have ratified those agreements. The WTO has various functions among which two
can be described. Firstly, this organisation gives a discussion to negotiate and to set disputes.
Secondly, this organisation oversees the administration, operation and implementation of the
covered agreements. WTO regulations along with its work administration and dispute
settlement strategies have become important in global trade for performing smoothly and for
the management. In 2008, the world has experienced global financial crisis that further has
influenced economies adversely by increasing unemployment through creating pressures for
protecting domestic industries. Hence, the WTO has been recognised to stop the threat related
to trade protectionism. The multilateral trade negotiations, which is, the Doha Development
Round has experienced challenges to liberalise trade and to reform the WTO. This round has
focused on decreasing critical trade barriers in some areas like industrial goods and services
and agriculture. This would support businesses across the world for specialising in the
production of goods and services to obtain comparatively greater economic status and to
enhance their productivity and efficiency (Ruggie, 2017). Moreover, large developing
economies have expanded its economic condition and this has created new challenges for this
organisation. Hence, the way those countries can be incorporated into the international