World+Trade+Organisation

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international trade institution. The WTO superseded and replaced GATT that was a general agreement governing international trade from 1947 until January 1, 1995. The creation of the WTO was negotiated in the final GATT round, the Uruguay Round. The WTO maintains a number of core principles from the GATT. These principles include:
 * World Trade Organization **

• Non-discrimination, which in practice means two things. The first principle is MFN - most favored nation treatment. Any trade concession a nation offers to one member, it must offer to all. The second principle is national treatment. This means that imported products must be treated the same as domestic goods. • Reciprocity of Trade Concessions. • Trade Liberalization. • Transparency and predictability in import and export rules and regulations. • Favorable treatment to less developed countries. Although the WTO replaced the GATT legacy, the last one (GATT) still exists as the WTO’s umbrella treaty for trade in goods, but the Uruguay Round and WTO added many new issues and features. To begin with, many older agreements were replaced by new and more stronger agreements, for example, the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing established a time-table to liberalize textile trade, while the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures established a more transparent regime for trade in agricultural goods and ensures plant and animal health standards are followed. The WTO also broke new ground, adding a number of trade sectors and issues not addressed by the GATT: • The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) adds services. • Trade in Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) adds copyrights, trademarks and patents. • Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) sets rules for Foreign Direct Investment. • Government Procurement (GPA) & the Information Technologies (ITA) agreements also international rules on new product areas. • The Dispute Settlement Body and its dispute settlement panels. But the WTO may differentiate from the GATT not only in scope, but in institutional functioning. The WTO has two significant functions that the GATT did not. First, the WTO has a Trade Policy Review Body; this one can periodically access a country's trade policies and notes any changes. It is a non-judgmental, non-confrontational body, and seconds the Dispute Settlement Body that can oversee procedures for settings disputes between members.

//**Chronology of the WTO**//
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