World Trade Organization (WTO) - International Economics Institution, Business Environment Video Lecture | Business Environment - B Com

today as part of my international
organization project I'll be talking
with the World Trade Organization
commonly referred to as the WTO the
following acronyms will be used in this
presentation the WTO is an international
agreement of member nations committed in
principle to free multinational trade
through the reduction of trade barriers
as a multilateral organization it covers
goods services and intellectual property
rights established by the euro guy
around the organization replaced ga TT
or general agreement on tariffs and
trade in January 1st 1995 the
organization is now led by
director-general Pascal Lamy currently
there are 153 members such as the United
States UK France and China
the most notable absent EES frequently
referred to as observer countries are
those in the Middle East such as Iran
some nations have been rejected in the
past while others are still attempting
to meet the requirements for accession
the five main aims of the WTO are to
increase international trade by lowering
trade barriers to be a forum for trade
negotiations to handle disputes among
member countries to create economic
stability in the world through a
multilateral system and lastly to
cooperate with other multinational
corporations as for the structures and
mechanisms of the organization the WTO
is dominated by its main decision-making
body called the ministerial conference
which is comprised of all member
countries and is required to meet at
least once in two years for negotiating
trade agreements the major subsidiary
body is a General Council which operates
in two forms one being the dispute
settlement body which oversees the
dispute settlement procedures and the
other being the trade policy review body
which constantly reviews the trade
policies of each member nation the
general counsel delegates responsibility
to three other bodies named
me the consoles for trading goods
trade-related aspects of intellectual
property and trade and services these
bodies report to the general council as
they deal with trade agreements and
goods and to electoral property rights
and services respectively the success of
the WTO in meeting its official aims is
debatable therefore it is best to
examine both the positive and negative
aspects of the organization firstly the
WTO's
aim to liberalize international trade is
considered successful as a hypothetical
example two countries with comparative
advantage uncertain commodities are able
to benefit from improved trade
conditions if they were to specialize in
products that yield a lower opportunity
cost trade agreements can also reduce
taxes on the exchange of goods and
services which leads to freer access to
the foreign exchange market which in
turn leads to economic growth however
critics claim that often times less
developed countries have little
influence and decision-making some
countries especially those in
sub-saharan Africa have faced lower real
GDP per capita than they had 10 years
ago it is also argued that WTO treaties
are unfairly biased towards the interest
of more developed countries and
multinational corporations
lastly critics have pointed out that
free trade does not necessarily make
life better for the poor but have only
resulted in a widening gap between the
rich and the poor the WTO has
encountered increased economic
instability mainly due to the current
economic crisis that began with the
collapse of the mortgage market in the
United States it is currently involved
in the Doha Development round which
commenced in November 2001 and continues
to this day in this trade negotiation
round the WTO aims to encourage global
trade by reducing protectionist measures
the major issues at hand include
agriculture industrial tariffs trade
remedies and non-tariff barriers however
6sx of the Doha round is debated because
of too
firstly the US and the European Union
are asked to lower subsidies and
agriculture commodities secondly the
newly industrialized countries such as
India and Brazil are pushed by the most
developed countries to lower trade
barriers or imported products as a final
remark the World Trade Organization is
considered very important especially
with the globalization of this world
because encourages foreign direct
investment which refers to the
investment by overseas firms in another
country although disputes exist in for
example the Doha round negotiations the
organization continuously attempts to
monitor economic policies of members and
observers manage trade disputes and
administer trade agreements as it aims
to integrate MDC's and ICS LDCs and MNC
through its multilateral system the WTO
has certainly become a fundamental forum
for trade negotiations around the world
thank you