WTO (World Trade Organization)

Introduction:
WTO (World Trade Organization) agreements consists of the rules and regulations and having fair trade practices framework with the developing countries of the world. In order to face multilateral negotiations and to cope up with the failure of Doha Round. The multilateral trade system was a great achievement that advanced a framework for the WTO/GATT international trading. However, the conflicts of member’s interests, RTAs have become the only remedy, where nations can seek to apply their views via direct negotiations. Ultimately the success depends on the success of Doha Round, developing countries fails to achieve their objectives under the RTAs framework and bilateral deals. Finally it has been analyzed that the rules set under the RTAs were proper but the regulation was on weaker side. The RTAs and WTO relationship has been controversial and much disputed as a matter of lack of regulation among the fair trade practices. Taking into consideration the proper valuation of the goods the amount of duties paid should also be counted. Lastly in this essay we look towards most beneficial acquisitions to promote unfair and equitable foreign trade practices.

Describing WTO:
A word WTO is known as the World Trade Organization which is very helpful to the trading business around the world. Nowadays most of the countries are being benefited by the trading agreements which are having their own different types of regions[1]. Earlier the regions and the international bodies were treated very softly with a view to have mutual cooperation to the financial business. But the time when RTA has been increased, it has put a competition with the trade structure. WTO came into practice from 1995 due to which agreements has been treated fairly and smoothly. It was formed so as to have track on all joint venture trade and agreements which were being done among the associates, side by side support was being given to the newest trades. As such many precautions have been taken care of so that any disputes should not come among the different nations. All the previous agreements which were formed by different countries were being continued with the new agreements also. World Trade Organization also plays an important role to keep a check on all regions so that there should not be any unfair trade practices being used with the agreements[2].
The agreements helps the other nations to remove the poverty line by taking different measures which helps the workers to benefit in terms of their health, family and also by providing good training so as to come out from their poverty line.
The WTO agreements consists of the rules and regulations and having fair trade practices framework with the developing countries of the world. Every country has different rules and regulations as such WTO takes care of all nations.
There are approx. 150 countries are the member of WTO and among them around 2/3 members are developing countries. Those developing countries play an important role in the WTO due to their strong economy and consider trade as a one of the key for the economy development. There are several difference as concern to their individual views exist among the developing countries. So followings are the special arrangement for the developing countries:
Existence of the special provision for the developing countries under WTO agreements.
There are special committees as concern to Trade and development, focus on those special provisions and there are other area like technology transfer, trade and debt, which are dealing with some other committee.
Technical assistance related training and development backed by Secretariat of WTO for the developing nations.
The obligation of procedural fairness of WTO has two different aspects. The first explained that the obligation imposed within dispute settlement system, which protects the fairness among the parties in the processing. The other, member of WTO are obliged to ensure the fairness practice in their country’s legal system; it could be referred to GATT Article X: 3(a), which state that all the norms and regulation mentioned under Article X: 1 should be strictly scrutinize in a proper manner. Although, the above mentioned obligations are very important and it could also be subject to WTO dispute settlement proceeding.
In this essay, there are some problems which are been faced when the rules and trade practices are being implemented on different nations. In this we cover all the briefs of WTO; all the problems which are related to the developing nations have been resolved through WTO rules and guidelines[3].
Review of World trade organization
For the development of the economy, international trade barriers are been incorporated to provide promotional support to the developing nations. During the formation of International Monetary Fund, a proposal was been submitted by United Nation[4] and formulation of plan was been done with economics and social council acknowledge so as to regulate the plan in International Trade Organization ,started just after World Bank and IMF in 1945. US and UK has got a very sophisticated picture towards the fair trade in the beginning, just after sometime United Nation have been settled for mixed and different rules and regulations, o the other hand United kingdom Government followed proper rules and regulations so as to run in an proper manner.
WTO and various trade agreements share the same rules and regulations as such they were regulated by strict policies. Mainly there were some clear exemptions of various trade agreements as compared to WTO. RTA and other agreements from the trading organization created a discriminatory issue for other members. The regional trade agreements moved very hastily just after article XXIV came through which other trade organizations has grown significantly.
Fifty four bodies signed the treaty that worked for the debate for various rounds held at Havana. As ITO does not come under the Trading agreements as states of UNO, it never participated while voting for ITO bodies, and ignores by few regulatory bodies[5].
The negotiation which took place in 1948 involved various rounds and at UN Conference in Havana(Cuba), 54 countries signed the negotiation. The main objective of ITO’s was to encourage more international economic growth and the flow of trade internationally, which also consider agreements of commodity, provisions for employment, investment opportunities and eliminating risky business practices. The major factors which ITO constitutes and concentrated was to increase the flow of international trade by performing trading of various goods and services and to boost up the global economic growth. Proper procedures were established to measure the performance of provisions made for employment, limiting trade practices, agreement of commodity and various methods of investment. Because of all this ITO was not in the minds of different bilateral participating nation in the trading[6].
The actual predictions on epigrammatic agreement and trade organization kept a regulatory check on it proved by General agreement on Trade and Tariffs. After the disintegration of the ITO, GATT has been emerged as a multilateral instrument for handling the international trade. Since, GATT transformed as an international body, which has been expected by UN system to function as a specialized agency[7].
Handling the issues over trade , trading was increased as well as the tariffs set were comparatively lower than the other trade practices, thus playing an important and pivotal role in forming a powerful and useful approach all over. Some set of rules and regulations was to be followed by the endorsed countries. A deep refurbishing was required by the system in 1980’s which gave rise to a Uruguay Round and further lead to the introduction of WTO7. InGeneva, The Uruguay round has been taken place with the basic idea of the ministerial meeting of GATT in November 1982.
Agriculture was strongly hindered from the beginning in this meeting, but all the ideas lead to the immense failure of all. The new globalization of the world economy was anxiously followed by the Uruguay Round.
Since the treaty has been signed by many nations, a large expansion in the trade was expected. Trading of agriculture and textiles in different segment also showed a increasing sign. A well planned cross-examination was held in order to give a review to all rules and regulations levied by GATT. Hence, the growth of international trade has been accelerated due lead taken by increased number of nations. In year 1993, some modifications were made in the rules and regulations which had been assigned to the existing signatory bodies. Perhaps same rules were to be followed with the same agreements as it was the high time but some changes lead to the higher side of foreign trade. The important benefit obtained from the act of Uruguay Round lead to the foundation of World Trade Organization. On 1st, January 1995, the term WTO came into existence in continuation with the GATT framework[8]. For all the countries agreement is not necessary, although it is related to the constitutional body of international law and represents the significant picture widely. Around 153 members took part in the foundation of WTO and maximum trade is being measured through this WTO framework. WTO is regarded as the only existing framework which focuses and deals in maintaining the healthy relationship between the co-countries which allow the trade expansion within liberal economy across the world. The co-members of WTO have the full right to arbitrate in the round table as per Article 2, many regulations deal while
posing provisions and restrictions for obligation among the internal environment[9].WTO describes various rules and regulations for promotional trade, but it does not represent the real picture as any appropriate meetings and procedures are not followed or have not been considered regarding the fairness of practices and which remains impartial. Because of all this some new areas has been taken into account and proper measures are drafted to make them as an economical advantage among labour and the environment because of different trading agreements. WTO works on the larger framework whereas the agreements are balanced when it considers the total number of states. Few assumptions are being framed while dealing with the developing countries. WTO’s basic principle is to see the limitation of rules and regulations which are open to the members, although a very limited discussion on trade barriers and proper procedures are followed to resolve the disputes between the trading countries.
WTO Regulatory Framework
The legal framework of WTO is to see the proper execution of fair trade practices and the extent up to which the rules and regulations should be taken into consideration while doing trade with different countries. The problem faced lies with the implementation of various rules and regulations, how to resolve the disputes among different traders and making decisions for the organization[10].
Under the Article 4.1 of the WTO agreement, the Conference among the ministry is the highest authority of WTO. The conference details the voluntary decision making all the members of WTO confined to the legislative body. The meeting of the Ministerial Conference must be done in every two years. These meetings explain the wide range of political interactions of the Conference held for through discussions and decisions.
It is not necessary that the Ministerial conference actually needs to deliver the proper influence over the obligatory feat over the WTO members. In contrary the General council calls for the general meet with all itsMemberState’s ambassadors apparently once in every subsequent month inGeneva, this meeting is done related to the economic condition in order to get investigated and possible amendments could be made on the decisions making. Its main objective is to frame and analyze the policies related to national trade and in order to run other authorities in the WTO such as the secretariat. Every member of the WTO was specified to participate in disputes settlements panels, committees exempting from the Appellate body, councils and Textiles Monitoring Body. The administrative and technical support was provided by the Secretariat among both the WTO and developing countries which were laid on different trade policies, resolutions of trade and advice of the governments.
To keep checks on the rules and regulation, the country’s voting system plays a very crucial role as each country can just vote one time, though it does not matter because they are not taken into account.
Dispute Settlement
The global economy prefers to do trade with the neighboring countries, reason being the low tariffs, and thus helping in creating and maintaining healthy environment and relation as transport costs also lowers down. Proper calculations and approximations are made in order to formulate and regulate proper agreement among the countries. As new trade theory opens the gate for the scale of economies giving rise to larger number of agreements and thus to more trading segments which can become more efficient towards exports and imports. Various agreements of Uruguay Round gave a helping hand in providing a clear picture of WTO framework towards planned rules and regulations. A proper framework to settle disputes was confined by WTO[11].
The dispute settlement is an integral system in the WTO, Which applies to all multilateral agreements with single set of all disputes but some specific rules in some cases.
The following bodies play an important role in the WTO:
Dispute Settlement Body (DSB)
Panel and Appellate Body
Parties: WTO Members
WTO Secretariat