The World Trade Organization Deals with Trade Between Nations

The World Trade Organization (W.T.O) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. It was established and became operational on the 1st of January 1995. It is an influential organisation in the era of economic globalisation. At the heart of the Organisation are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. These agreements form the legal ground-rules for international commerce and guarantee member countries important trade rights. They are made up of a complex set of rules and principles dealing with the trade in goods and services and the protection of intellectual property rights. Their goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business and to improve on the welfare of the people in their member countries.

According to the WTO fact file, the organisation had 151 members as of 15th November 2007. Membership to the organisation is quasi-universal and includes all the major trading partners of the world who account for over 97% of the world’s trade. About 150 members, that is two third of the countries who make up membership of the organisation are developing countries. These countries play an important and active role in the organisation not only because of their number in the organisation but also because their role in the global economy is becoming prominent as they look on to trade as crucial for their development. These countries are many and as such they are a diverse group with different views, needs and concerns. Thus the W.T.O has dealt with the special needs and concern of these developing countries, especially the least developed ones amongst...

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...ules have internal coherence and validity as evidenced by their object and purpose. Though to an extent they have served the interest of developing countries in their quest for development, they have however not operated effectively in the interest of these countries. This is because in some instances these rules appear to be inconsistent with the needs of these countries. Out of the numerous provisions on special and differential treatment, a majority of them are non-mandatory and even those classified as mandatory are rather limited in their binding character since they may considered some flexibility in their implementation. This implies a non-binding provision with formulations such as shall or might is necessarily ineffective. As such there is the need to improve on these provisions by making them binding legally to render them operational and effective.