The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). GATT was established in 1947, after the 2nd World War -- as part of the architecture of the post-war economic landscape. The two Bretton Woods Institutions (the International Monetary Fund or IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or World Bank, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) were all created at that time. The International Trade Organization was also to be created to oversee world-trading activities and settle trade disputes, but agreement could not be reached. GATT was therefore created as an interim organization to oversee world trade issues. It ended up existing for almost 50 years. Finally, at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) in 1994, an agreement to create the WTO was reached, and it then took off in 1995.
The legal instrument establishing the WTO consists of GATT 1994 (which includes GATT 1947), twelve Multilateral Trade Agreements (MTAs) on goods, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, and an agreement on a Trade Policy Review Mechanism.
The main functions of the WTO, as contained in article III of the Agreement are:(i) to facilitate the implementation, administration and operation of the Uruguay Round Agreements; and (ii) to provide a forum for negotiations among members concerning their multilateral trade relations. Many signatories to the Agreement, especially Canada, the European Community (EC; now the EU), and many developing countries saw WTO not only as a mechanism for implementing the results of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations within a common institutional framework but also as a device for imposing more stringent discipline to preclude unilateral trade measures. According to UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 1994, the successful completion of the Uruguay Round of MTN and the signing of the WTO Agreement would lead to a substantial strengthening of the multilateral trading system by · providing much more detailed rules to govern the application of a variety of trade policy measures; · devising new multilateral trade rules to cover intellectual property and trade in services; · achieving a substantial degree of tariff liberalization so as to maintain the momentum towards ever freer multilateral trade; · reducing the discriminatory aspects of regional trade agreements; · effectively raising the multilateral obligations of all countries to broadly comparable levels, with differential and more favourable treatment for developing countries being delineated in a more specific, contractual manner; and · linking together the various agreements concluded within a formal institutional framework (i.e., WTO), subject to an integrated dispute settlement mechanism, see UNCTAD (1994: 119 and 121).
African Development Bank Economic Research Working Paper Series Enhancing Africa’s Trade: From Marginalization to an Export-Led Approach to Development Milton A. Iyoha Professor, Department of Economics & Statistics University of Benin, Nigeria Economic Research Working Paper No 77 (August 2005)
To learn more about this author, visit African Development Bank's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors |
|
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
|
|
|
African Development Bank
(Visit African's Website)
The African Development Bank is the
premier financial development institution
of Africa, dedicated to combating poverty
and improving the lives of people of the
continent and engaged in the task of
mobilizing resources towards the economic
and social progress of its Regional Member
Countries.The Bank’s s mission is to
promote economic and social development
through loans, equity investments, and
technical assistance.
The ADB is a multilateral development bank
whose shareholders include 53 African
countries and 24 non-African countries
from the Americas, Asia, and Europe. It
was established in 1964, with its
headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire,
and officially began operations in 1967.
|
|
|
African Development Bank's
Complete
List Of
African-Accounts
Articles
|
|
If you enjoyed this article, get African Development Bank's Complete List of African-Accounts Articles For FREE!
|
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
