What role does the WTO play in international business? Argue the case that the WTO is either helpful or a hindrance to international trade, giving particular examples to support your case.

WTO: World Trade Organization deals with the global trading rules between international governments. The overall rules must be predictable enough so that everyone involved isn’t dealing with chaotic sudden changes.

Institutions encourage cooperation by creating interstate trade rules. Without a world government, states must self-enforce international agreements and punish others who violate them. Yet, states cannot enforce agreements or punish violators if they cannot agree on what constitutes a violation. Such ambiguity fosters conflict. Trade rules eliminate this ambiguity because they measure whether nations violated trade agreements. By identifying violations, trade rules thus prevent states from reciprocating punishment for misperceived transgressions (Frieden, Lake, and Schultz 2016). The World Trade Organization (WTO) provides such rules. Striving to promote market liberalization, the WTO requires members to implement non-discriminatory measures like Most-Favored Nation (MFN) and national treatment. MFN obliges members to give equal market access to all other members

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization whom oversees international trade. The WTO was created in January of 1995. "WTO deals with the rules of trade between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in charge of policing member countries' adherence to all the WTO agreements, signed by the majority of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments" (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/global-strategy/s13-02-regulation-of-international-tr.html). The WTO has 153 members, representing more than 95% of total world trade. The WTO is governed by a Ministerial Conference, headquartered in Switzerland. They implement the conference's policy decisions and is responsible for day-to-day administration. There role is to oversee nondiscrimination, reciprocity, binding commitment, transparency, and the safety between it's member

The World Trade Organization was developed in 1995 out of what was known as the Uruguay Round. Although GATT set rules they mostly dealt with issues just involving simple trade of goods and the distribution of tariffs. The WTO has a broader job than the GATT; “…it oversees multilateral agreements relating not just to good, but also to services, investment and intellectual property.” (Douglas Irwin, 186) The World Trade Organization is an independent organization and decisions are made out of consensus of the member countries involved, not from the World Trade Organization itself. When a country complains about another country and the way they run things that could affect their home country, the WTO must make a decision on what must be done. Once a ruling has been made the losing country must implement one of three strategies:

Indeed, it has established the normative legal framework for multilateral trade in the four corners of the globe. As Matsushita notes ‘The WTO is the first international organization to bring about the rule of law in international trade in large scale backed up by the effective dispute settlement mechanism’. The over 300 hundred decision by the dispute settlement mechanism on various cases establishes an important corpus of legal precedent that serves as a frame of reference for the negotiation of Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements. As a result, the fundamental principles underlying the WTO agreements, such as the MFN and National Treatment (NT) are here to stay and will continue to influence all future trade agreements. Hence, it can be agreed that the WTO has instituted the value system of free trade worldwide, such that the majority of the globe believes in trade liberalization and is willing to open up their economies to participate in free trade. Moreover, by creating a common trade language that almost every country understands, it has only made trading that much easier to negotiate. The existing agreements also provide a solid foundation for countries to build upon when drafting their own trade agreements, whether it is for free trade or preferential

The main reason for creating the WTO was to impose GATT, GATS and TRIPS agreements. Although the WTO decisions are made by a consensus of its members, the decision making structure differs from the GATT. It consists of and administrative body (Secretariat), a ministerial conference that meets once in two year, and a general council composed of ambassadors and delegate heads (Dillman 138). It also uses Dispute settlement Panels that rule on trade disputes. This is something GATT did not have; an impartial panel of experts rules on cases that are submitted to the WTO. It can also enforce trade sanctions to members who do not enforce the rulings by the panel.

World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international trade organization which was set up on January 1, 1995. It was developed with the participation of 161 states. The purpose of WTO is to design different agreements relating to trade with the mutual consent of the members companies, setting out trade rules and principles among different countries. WTO aims at reducing obstacles in trade and business between the countries and look into disputes that arise in nature of trade. The prime function of WTO is to provide a framework for manufacturers, importers, exporters and businesses through which they can regulate their working boundaries.

The SPS agreement allows each nation to decide its own level of safeguards and hence may apply protecting measures based on scientific safety risk assessment data (Scherzberg, 2006). However, where members feel that unjustifiable trade barriers have been set up and breach the SPS or TBT agreement, they can approach the WTO under the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) agreement (WTO, n.d). The DSU supplies the procedures under which trade disputes should be handled, for example the DSB has the authority to set up a panel to review the dispute(s) and “to oversee reports, rulings, and their implementation” (Tehrani, 2008). Subsequently, the Appellate Body can accept, amend or even reject the findings of the panel and then have the responsibility to ensure the judgment of the ruling is implemented and also “oversee the amount of compensation and retaliation” (WTO, 2014, Tehrani, 2008)

The WTO continues the practice of decision making inter alia by consensus followed under GATT 1947. The WTO provides for the effective enforcement of its rules and agreements through the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) which contributes to its decision-making process. This is the core function of the WTO in settling member disputes and is a formal process which is based upon the principles of

The China case was more long and complex than most accession case due to number of reasons: firstly, the country is the largest trading nation in the world and second largest sources of the United States (U.S.) deficit, so it lured a lot attention among all current applicants for joining the WTO. The accession of China will have a significant impact on these there: the restructuring of China 's domestic economic, the WTO, and the international trading environment. In addition, the accession points out many distresses for many scholars ' and policy-makers regarding the advantages, disadvantages and future of the WTO with or without China. More importantly, the entry of China into the WTO directly affects accession of another applicant, Taiwan, which has existing unsettled disputes between both countries.

However, there seem to be disagreements on China’s position and performance in the WTO in the future. It is being said that China’s view on the WTO’s multilateral trade system is ambiguous. Furthermore China is blamed for being irresponsible when it comes to maintaining he international order and global economic governance. According to Rafael Leal-Arcas, 2010, China has been playing at best a passive role and, at worst, a disruptive role with respect to the global trading system. “China would be broken, and a broken China could break the WTO. Therefore, the WTO’s most difficult challenge may be to discipline trade relations among China and other WTO members. All WTO members should work collectively to encourage China to change its behavior.” By so doing, they may promote the development of the WTO. (Susan Ariel Aaronson, 2010)

The official World Trade Organisation web site, defines the WTO as “the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations . . . [through] helping producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers (to) conduct their business”1. It was formed in 1995 after growing out of and extending the institution of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. As of the thirtieth of November 2000, the WTO has 140 member-countries, over three-quarters of which are developing or least-developed countries. As the WTO implies, its current role is to serve as the lubrication for the joints in the engine of globalisation; although just how effective and fair this lubrication may be,

Due to the global world starting to become one it seems as though every country wants to participate in the trading system. It is currently the biggest phenomenon. Many countries that want to join the trading sector are afraid of some of the issues that comes with it such as laws and regulations that do not align with other countries. Countries have now started to join the World Trade organization (WTO) to help them integrate into the trading sector and help them with laws and regulations. The WTO seems as though they will help benefit countries when joining, but do they actually help them with the trading blockage between other countries and help to increase GDP, export and imports and lower tariff rates.

The WTO is governed by the rules of the GATT, however, the decisions it makes are binding, and member states are required to abide by its resolutions. Since its beginnings, the WTO has overseen international trade and has stimulated freer international trade across the globe. In addition, the establishment of the WTO has led to the formation of various other free trade areas across the globe. However, there are many people and politicians who are opposed to free trade and its implications.

From Albania to Zimbabwe, many countries have become involved in the World Trade Organization over the years. Any state or customs territory having full autonomy in the conduct of its trade policies may become a member of the WTO, but all WTO members must agree on the terms. This is done through the establishment of a working party of WTO members and through a process of negotiations. All members have joined the system as a result of negotiation and the membership means a balance of rights and obligations. They like the ideas that other members give to them and the security that the trading rules give in. In return, they had to make understandings to open the markets and to go by the all the rules. Those commitments were the outcome of the membership decisions. Countries going through membership are WTO observers. Article XII of the WTO Agreement says that joining to the WTO will be on terms to be agreed between the government and the WTO. Joining the WTO is a process of negotiation, slightly different from the process of joining other international trades.