Report on International Political Economy
Added on 2020-04-07
16 Pages3445 Words78 Views
WTO 1International Political EconomyNameInstitution
WTO 2Introduction Predominantly, the World Trade Organization sets the rules for international trade havingreplaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the year 1995.Also, the World tradeOrganization is mandated to foresee trade negotiations, settle member states trade disputes andforesee the implementation of trade agreements and policies. Among the principle functions ofthe World Trade Organization is to foster international trade and to contain trade tensions.Currently, the World Trade Organization is facing a dilemma following the introduction of theUntied States of America Trade Policy Agenda of 2017 which seeks to bar advancedinterpretations weakening the benefits and rights of trade arrangements entered into by the UniteStates. In a way, the United States of America seeks to elevate its interests above the rules of theWorld Trade Organization (IAS Parliament,2017).Largely, this trade policy seeks to undermine other world Trade Organization memberstates interests which will in turn lead render the World trade Organization incapable ofprotecting the economic interests of most of its member states leading to a confidence crisis andpossible withdrawal of members states whose interests will be curtailed by the adoption of theTrade policy Agenda 2017.Equally,Following the failed negotiations of the Doha Round ofNegotiations for 14 years has created a confidence crisis in the World Trade Organization tofoster international trade (Editorial Board, 2016).Due to the unsuccessful talks, most nationshave opted for bilateral and regional trade arrangements which in a way has undermined themandate of the World trade organization. The whole principle of the World Trade Organizationalso known as the WTO is to foster rules of international trade.
WTO 3 However, due to its inability to successfully complete the Doha Negotiations, mostcountries have opted to make individual trade rules and agreements to meet their trade needs asopposed to being governed by the WTO international trade rules and policies.Also, following thefailure of the Doha Negotiations goes to show lack of political will of member states to promotefree international trade. There lack of confidence in the WTO economic policies and agreementsdue to the fact that it was unable to successfully conclude the Doha negotiations which isattributed to lack of political will on the part of member states (Zumpfort, 2007).The WTOprinciples advocate for open international trade as opposed to protectionism but due to the lackof political will of some of the strongest economically developed countries, developing countriesare on the losing side of the bargain. Remarkably, trade liberalization has raised global incomes significantly under theUmbrella of the WTO thus making the failure to remove trade restrictions in agricultural,industrialization under the Doha Negotiations is considered a failure on the part of the WTOwhich has led to countries making way for the bilateral trade arrangements which is a wayundermines the importance of the World Trade Organization(Meltzer 2011).The main goal of theDoha negotiations was to liberalize more markets currently not under the umbrella of the WorldTrade organization. In addition, some countries have considered the World Trade Organizationinadequate to address food security ,climate and global trade imbalances thus resulting into lossof confidence in the ability of the world trade organization .In addition, despite the WTOprinciples advocating for equal treatment of member countries the same isn’t reciprocated inreality. In the sense that countries with stronger economies interests are better protected isopposed to lesser economically developed countries leading to most less developed countries
WTO 4feeling under appreciated (Shah,2007).The role of the World trade organization is to boost freetrade through drawing up trade rules .Politics is a more decisive factor for the world tradeorganizations decisions as opposed to the principles on which the organization was founded.Particularly, the World trade organization s considered to have failed in protecting the interest ofdeveloping countries following the recent failed Doha Negotiations (Walker,2011).The Worldtrade organization member states have failed to deliver development goals to developingcountries. For instance, no tariff reductions have been made for cotton growing nations onAgricultural subsidies, no clarifications have been made on the rules governing the conclusion oftrade agreements.In a way, the World Trade organization is considered failing in delivering its mandate toits member states leading to criticism and dissatisfaction of member states (Walker2011).Additionally, rules protecting the interest of developing countries are yet to be conclusiveand concise thus reducing the membership interests and benefits of developing nations who feelsidelined rather than taken care of. Typically, member dissatisfaction may lead to developingmember states leaving the union thus making the World Trade Organization irrelevant thus theneed for the organization to address developing member states interests. Additionally, the failureof the World trade organization to adequately deliver on the interest of developing countries haslead to the making of economic pacts based on individual member state political and economicreasoning thus rendering the World trade organization rules of international trade not so relevantin those trading states(Pitso,2017).Usually, lack of attended interests by the World Trade Organization has pusheddeveloping member states to look out for their own economic interests independent of the WorldTrade Organization. Most developing member states interests haven’t been fulfilled under the
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