Is the World Trade Organisation still fit for the purpose?

Is the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) still
fit for the purpose?

Table of Contents
ESSAY on “Is the World Trade Organisation still fit for the purpose?”.........................................1
History....................................................................................................................................2
Purpose of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).................................................................2
Principles of the trading system.............................................................................................3
Critique of World Trade Organisation...................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

ESSAY on “Is the World Trade Organisation still fit for the purpose?”
The World Trade Organisation, commonly referred to as ‘WTO’, is an acknowledged and
renowned inter government entity which holds the authority to regulate global trade taking place
between the countries worldwide. It is determined that this organisation was initiated on the 1st of
January in the year 1995 as a part of the Marrakesh Agreement, which was signed by a total of
123 countries on the 15th of April in the year 1994 in replacement of GATT (General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade). Across the globe, it is recognised as being the biggest global economic
organisation. Apart from this, the respective entity is concerned with regulating trade taking
place in terms of intellectual property, merchandise and services in between the participatory
nations. This regulation is executed via provision of a framework for the purpose of negotiation
of trade agreement as well as dispute resolution process (Martin and Shadman-Pajouh, 2015).
The sole aim of this is to ensure that the participating nations adhere to the agreements enforced
by the World Trade Organisation. In this regard, it has been recognised that the World Trade
Organisation is against the discrimination taking place between the trade partners. However, it is
also witnessed that the exceptions to this are seen in the form of national security, environment
conservation and other such crucial goals of the organisation.
The resolution of disputes which take place in relation to trade matters is done via the
execution of dispute resolution procedure by the judges who are a part of World Trade
Organisation. In addition to this, it is recognised that the first ever comprehensive agreement in
the history of this organisation was a trade facilitating agreement that received agreement on the
part of all the members on the 7th of December during the year 2013 (Elsig, Hoekman and
Pauwelyn, 2017). Further, it is determined that the first time when the accords of World Trade
Organisation were amended, was acknowledged to be the alterations made to the TRIPS (Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement. In this regard, it was assessed that
the alterations made in this agreement aimed at securing a way for emerging nations to get access
to affordable remedy within the confines of rules set by World Trade Organisation. Over the
course of time, a large number of studies have been conducted upon the World Trade
Organisation and they largely reflect that the entity has resulted in the increment of trade.
Besides this, it has been forecasted that the constraints to trading will inflate if this organization
is absent or inexistent.
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History
The predecessor of the World Trade Organisation, namely, the GATT was created via a
multilateral treaty of a total of 23 nations during the year 1947 after the Second World War. In
this regard, it has been determined that the emergence of this agreement owes to other economic
institutions such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank. In addition to this, it has been
acknowledged that a global institution, namely, the International Trade Organisation could never
be formed as it did not received ratification from the signatories as well as United States
(Argyroulis, 2015). As a result of this, Generally Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
gradually turned into a de facto global institution.
Purpose of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
The World Trade Organisation holds a number of purposes behind its formation.
However, out of these, some are regarded to be more important than others by the analysts. Such
purposes are briefly stated as under:-
 This organisation seeks to oversee the execution, management and operations of the
concerned agreements.
 In addition to the above defined purpose, the concerned entity also stipulates a forum for
the purpose of dispute resolution as well as for negotiating (Wilkinson, 2014).
Apart from the above defined purposes, it is identified that the duty of the World Trade
Organisation is in relation to reviewing and propagating the national trade policies as well as
make sure that the transparency of such policies is maintained via the execution of surveillance
in the domain of economic policy making procedure of the globe.
Yet another concern or can be recognized as the purpose of the World Trade Organisation is to
channelize the aid received on the part of the emerging, least developed and low income nations
with an aim of adjusting to the set of rule as well as discipline stipulated by the World Trade
Organisation through leveraging training along with technical co-operation (Metcalf and Benn,
2012).
Apart from the above discussed purposes of the WTO, there are some other functions
which are discussed in a brief manner as follows:-
 This organisation would foster the execution, management and operations of the
Multilateral Trade Agreements.
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