World Trade Organization (WTO) 2
World Trade Organization (WTO) 2 : The WTO is the main organizational and legal foundation of the global multilateral trading system. It was conceptualized in April of 1994, when the Uruguay Round of its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) came to a close. The previous GATT agreements were codified under a new institutional framework to be known as the WTO and were formally established on 1 January 1995. It became operational on 1 January 1997. Unlike the somewhat informal and less-structured GATT, a "Bretton Woods" idea materializing in January 1948 to facilitate negotiations with respect to the reduction of trade barriers among nations, the WTO is endowed with greater powers and a broader mandate, including binding procedures for settling trade disputes. The GATT possessed no enforcement mechanisms, no codified rules, and no substantial administrative structure. Despite its provisional status and inauspicious beginnings, the GATT evolved into something of a central facility for the regulating and maintaining of a fairly open international trade regime, reducing many of the more notable and absurd trade barriers around the world. Progressive achievements of the GATT included the "most favoured nation" concept - a non-discrimination principle in international trade, and a significant reduction in tariffs across the globe. Even with these achievements, the GATT was deemed not to be competent to deal with the extraordinary task of regulating the rapidly-expanding global economy. A fundamentally restructured regime was thought necessary, if the rules for fair and open trade are to be effectively enforced in an increasingly interdependent and complex world. The WTO was created to perform this role. To satisfy this requirement, the WTO among other things, has in place the following mechanisms: (a) The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), which has authority to exercise surveillance over individual members' trade policies, as well as an enhanced ability to respond to, and punish trade violations. (b) The placing of existing and new obligations of world trade. Administration under one internationally-recognized organizational structure. Such obligations include the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIP's). The WTO is seen by many as the principal agent of trade liberalization and a facilitator of the globalization process
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