World Trade Organization – WTO
Introduction
In an ever-changing world trade scenario, there has to be a
forum which can set rules and regulations for countries and governments to
trade by and also can serve as a platform to settle differences in the trading
community. World Trade Organization (WTO) is one such forum which negotiates
trade agreements and is also a place for settling trade disputes between member
governments. It is a forum where member governments try to sort out trade
problems by facing each other and also operates a system of trade rules. WTO is
officiated and administered by its member governments and all its major
decisions are made by the membership as a whole, who meet each other regularly
in Geneva. To be precise, WTO contributes to worldwide economic growth and
development by providing a forum for negotiating agreements which are aimed at
reducing obstacles to international trade and confirming smooth trade between
member nations. It provides legal and institutional framework for the
implementation and monitoring of these agreements, as well as work as platform
for settling disputes which arises from their application and interpretation.
Currently speaking, WTO comprises of 16 different multilateral
agreements (to which all WTO members are parties) and two different
plurilateral agreements (to which only some WTO members are parties). On
January 1 1995, WTO was officially commenced, under the Marrakech Agreement,
replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in
1948. The organization has 160 members, of which 117 are developing countries
or separate customs territories and its activities are supported by a
Secretariat of about 700 plus staff, which are commanded by the WTO
Director-General. The Secretariat of WTO is located in Geneva, Switzerland, and
has an annual budget of approximately CHF 200 million ($180 million, €130
million). The three official languages which are used in WTO are English,
French and Spanish. WTO agreements are presumably lengthy and complex in
nature. It is because they are legal texts which cover a wide range of
activities. As far as decision making of WTO is concerned, it is generally
taken by consensus of the entire membership.
The current Director-General of WTO is Roberto Azevêdo, who
leads a staff of over 600 people in Geneva, Switzerland. The Ministerial
Conference is the highest institutional body, which meets approximately every
two years. Subsequently, a General Council conducts the organization's business
in the intervals between Ministerial Conferences and both of these bodies
encompass all members. The specialized subsidiary bodies (Councils, Committees,
Sub-committees), also comprising all members, controls, manages and monitor the
implementation by members of the various WTO agreements. On 7 December 2013,
Bali Package, trade facilitation agreement was reached by all members. It was
the first comprehensive agreement in WTO history.
The other main activities of WTO comprise building capacity
of developing country government officials in international trade matters and
also assisting the process of accession of about 30 countries who are still to
become member of WTO. The founding and guiding principles of WTO are primarily
to open national markets to international trade, with justifiable exceptions or
with adequate flexibilities. This will encourage and contribute prosperously to
raise people’s welfare, reducing poverty, fostering peace and stability and
also to the sustainable development worldwide. This type of market opening
should be accompanied by resounding domestic as well as international policies
which can contribute to the economic growth and development, as per the needs
and aspirations of every member nation.
The organization structure of WTO comprises of Council for
Trade in Goods, Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights, Council for Trade in Services and Trade Negotiations Committee. The
outcome of WTO functioning comes from the outcome of the negotiations. The most
significant part of WTO working comes from the 1986-94 negotiations, which is
Uruguay Round while the earlier negotiations were under the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Currently speaking, WTO is hosting new
negotiations, under the ‘Doha Development Agenda’, which was launched in 2001.
The core element of WTO is its agreements which are negotiated and signed by
the greater part of the world trading nations. These types of specialized
documents provide legal ground rules for the international commerce which are
mainly contracts that binds governments to keep their trade policies within
agreeable contracted limits. The main objective is to help producers of goods
and services, exporters, and importers to perform their business efficiently as
this allows governments to meet social and environmental objectives in most
promising way.
To be precise, WTO agreements covers services, goods and
intellectual property and influence out the principles of trade liberalization
and also the permitted exceptions. These agreements include commitments of
member countries to lower custom tariffs and other trade barriers and also to
open and keep open service markets. WTO agreements set procedures for settling
disputes which are not fixed or stagnant. The organization arranges hundreds of
technical cooperation missions to developing counties like India annually. In
Geneva, WTO holds various important courses for government officials to develop
the infrastructure and skills that are needed to develop and increase their
trade prospects. WTO outreaches to non-governments organizations, media, and
public, numerous international organizations on various aspects and also on
ongoing Doha negotiations.
Conclusions
As far as India’s perception is concerned, it would be most
decisive and significant to protect the interest of farmers, during the Doha
negotiations, even at the cost of abovementioned benefits that might have been
made in services and Non-Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) negotiations.
In case of agricultural negotiations, the field of interest
may be drifting away from India if it is required to carry out deep tariff cuts
without any simultaneous elimination of farm subsidies by developed countries.
The most determined and motivating proposal would be permitting the US as well
as EU together in providing trade-distorting subsidies to the amount of $ 30
billion. In addition to this, the developed countries may possibly be in a
position to increase subsidies under this category beyond the present levels of
$ 90 billion. These types of high levels of farm subsidies in developed
countries, supplemented with deep tariff reductions in India, could relentlessly
be threatening the livelihood of India’s farmers as well as the food security
of its people.
Therefore, India does not require reducing bound rates to
address the existing food shortage. As we know that India’s prevailing regime
in some service sectors (like telecom) is more liberal than its existing
commitments at the WTO, it could seek to influence and control this by binding
its existing regime, provided it obtains proportionate give-and-take
concessions.
