Wto : Wto ( Wto )

The Doha Round is the latest round of negotiations that began November 2001. Its aim was to lower trade barriers, revise trade rules and to promote trade in developing countries. (WTO.org) Both the

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

Over the years, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has prided itself as the central element in the international economic management system across the world. This system incorporates other international bodies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund as well as a series of other regional trade regimes that are growing. Collectively, these structures provide a mechanism that addresses international economic interdependence as well enhancing economic interactions that offer the promise of maximizing social welfare across the globe. These aspects have been brought about due to the focus given in the post-Cold War era where international relations have evolved beyond a narrow emphasis on politico-military affairs.

Developing countries have asserted themselves, particularly over the past 2 decades. The formulation of the G20 and the first public flexing of their muscles at the WTO conference, 2003, resulted in the breakdown of negotiations. “Most observers interpreted events at Cancun as a fiasco and a multilateral failure, but when we look a bit deeper we see developing countries forming an alliance that effectively represented their interests” (Crump, Larry & Javed, 2007, 17), this is a direct example of LDCs using international practices to their advantage and resisting DCs attempts at pushing them around. Unfortunately most developing countries have small assemblies at the WTO and therefore are often overcome by the sheer extent and the gruelling schedule while negotiating. Although LDCs are increasingly influential on the world stage, they are still often disadvantaged by the nature of international practices.

The World Trade Organization has proven to be the top most successful joint trade institution of the 20th century. In spite of the lack of a central authority, the WTO has sustained trade assistance for the better half of the last five decades. Over which time the influence of the association has increased both in terms of developed and underdeveloped country membership, as well as achieving significant expansion and scope of its original mandate, but not without its problems. Yet despite numerous setbacks the WTO remains an important

Recently, Ireland donated 350,000 euros to promote participation of developing countries and LDCs. Thanks to this donation, more LDCs will be able to participate in the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference on December 10th in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 150,000 euros will be given to the Standards and Trade Development Facility, which is a global partnership that helps developing countries reach food safety, animal health standards, plant health standards, and ease the access to the agricultural market. The remaining of the donation will be given to the WTO internship program. Roberto Azevedo said: “Ireland’s donation will help developing countries and LDCs acquire the necessary expertise to participate fully in world trade negotiations and to integrate further into the world economy.” These kinds of actions give hope to achieve a free trade world market. Hopefully, other developed countries will be able to follow Ireland’s steps and help developing countries and LDCs. Maybe one day the current developing countries will have

In the history of the WTO, it has been unusual for any developing country to win substantial concessions from the dominating EU-US block for increased market access and reduced tariffs. It is much more unusual when these concessions are granted in agricultural products, the most highly subsidized industry in the West. Starting in 2003 however and starting with the efforts of Brazil’s Pedro de Caramago, developing countries began to take a more aggressive and mobilized stance against EU and American subsidization of agricultural products.

The Doha Ministerial Declaration spelled out a number of key principles and procedures intended to inform the entire negotiation. First, the negotiations are to be conducted in a transparent manner that facilitates effective participation of all parties, with a view to ensuring benefits to all participants and achieving an overall balance in the outcome of the negotiations. Second, the negotiations and other aspects of the work programme are to take fully into account the principle of special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries. Third, the Committee on Trade and Development and the Committee on Trade and Environment are to identify and debate developmental and environmental aspects of the negotiations, in order to help achieve the objective of having sustainable development appropriately reflected. Fourth, the negotiations comprise a single undertaking, with the exception of work on the Dispute Settlement Understanding. Finally, while there is a clear distinction in the Doha Ministerial Declaration between negotiations and the work programme, issues covered by the latter are also to be accorded high priority, pursued under the overall supervision of the General Council and reported on at the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference in Cancún in September 2003. Members can invoke any of these underlying principles and procedures at any time if they feel they are not being accorded adequate attention.

     International trading has had its delays and road blocks, which has created a number of problems for countries around the world. Countries, fighting with one another to get the better deal, create tariffs and taxes to maximize their profit. This fighting leads to bad relationships with competing countries, and the little producing countries get the short end of this stick. Regulations and organizations have been established to help everyone get the best deal, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), but not everyone wants help, especially from an organization that seems to help only the big countries and those they want to trade with. This paper will be discussing

The Doha Development Agenda, referred to as the Doha Round, is the latest cycle of trade negotiations among World Trade Organization member governments and was officially launched at the WTO’s Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2011. Following eight rounds of multilateral trade talks since World War II, the Doha Round is the first that is explicitly geared toward facilitating the induction of developing countries into the global market and effectuating economic growth as a result. Bullet points on the agenda include reductions in tariffs and farm subsidies, as well as liberalizing trade in services through lowering taxes and regulatory barriers that impede cross-border trade in services such as

These are objectives of this paper: the next section will provide a theoretical framework with examining trade liberalisation and protectionism, and agricultural liberalisation and food security at international trade; after that, it will examine the trend in agri-food trade and CAP reforms.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) promotes free trade for the gain of private interests, over and above our health and the environment. It is fatally flawed and is moving the world in the wrong direction - away from peace, security and sustainability. By stalling on issues that are crucial to poorer countries, the WTO faces a crisis of legitimacy.

2. PANEL PROCEEDINGS STAGE: Special and differential treatment provisions in favor of developing countries also exist at the panel proceedings stage in Article 8(10), 12(10), and 12(11) of the DSU. This section looks at the utility of these provisions and whether or not they are of any value to developing countries and meet the challenges developing countries meet in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

The principle of special economic needs for the least developed countries (LCDs) was recognized in the GATT 1965, where the preferential treatment of such countries in matters of trade, tariffs and other legal measures was deemed a necessary vehicle to both trade liberalizations and also for enhancing the economic development of the LCDs (Mckenzie, 2005). Consequently, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has recognized the need for the preferential treatment of the developing countries in matters of trade as provided for under the Article I:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994), targeting the most-favoured-nations (MFN) (GATT, 1979). Therefore, the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulatory context relevant in this case goes back to the Generalized System of Preferences as established under the Enabling clause of the GATT, allowing for the preferential treatment of the developing countries over their developed counterparts in matters of trade relationships (EC, 2004). The relevant legal issue is whether the recent change in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) as developed by Solia are in violation of Article I and Article II of the GAAT of 1994.