- WTO Proposal Said To Threaten Food Aid Programs (July 27, 2004)
... advocates and U.S. senators have said that a line of text in the proposed World Trade Organization's Doha Round trade agreement, which could potentially be approved this wee... - Amnesty Int'l Calls for Probe of Miami Protest Policing (November 26, 2003)
...e Miami police operation to avoid a repeat of the riots that marred a 1999 World Trade Organization meeting was a model for post–Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. defense against domestic... - South Koreans Riot Against Free Trade (February 13, 2004)
...e as the crowd swarmed. South Korea is one of only five nations in the World Trade Organization that has not yet signed a Free Trade pact. Farmers and the poor hope to ke... - 'Global South' Flexes its Trade Muscle in Brazil (June 18, 2004)
... new reality came in September 2003, when developing nations walked out of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancún, Mexico. The move marked the rise of the so-called G... - W.T.O. Rules Against U.S. Cotton Subsidies (June 19, 2004)
...SĂO PAULO, Brazil, June 18 - In a landmark decision, the World Trade Organization ruled against American cotton subsidies in a case brought by Brazil, offic... - Intellectual Property Theft Declared 'Terrorism' (December 4, 2003)
...trengthen national legislation against counterfeiting before it joined the World Trade Organization at the end of 2001 — Mr Ibris said the country was making progress, but mo... - Europeans Fret, Fearing a Bolder Bush (November 5, 2002)
...er extent than political issues, because in trade you have the independent World Trade Organization which is a mechanism to solve disputes. We don't have that mechanism on po... - Multinationals Show Their Global Muscle (March 23, 2004)
...tions were "dramatically deepened and extended" though the auspices of the World Trade Organization and other trade agreements. One development had been a shift toward mo... - Iraq Contract Decision Reopens US-European Rift (December 10, 2003)
...with information so we can see whether or not their commitments" under the World Trade Organization "have been respected." The Pentagon directive said restricting contract... - Spoils to the Victor (April 18, 2003)
...ring Saddam Hussein about the importance of obeying international law. The World Trade Organization rules forbid governments to discriminate against the companies of fellow m... - Is the Peace Movement Dead? (September 12, 2002)
.../b> Seattle has, of course, seen effective mass protest recently. The 1999 World Trade Organization protests profoundly altered globalization politics and galvanized global-j... - US Seeks New Afghan Aid Amid Criticism of Reconstruction (July 27, 2003)
... to hold another donors conference as part of the September meeting of the World Trade Organization in Cancún, Mexico, with the expectation that the new $1 billion aid packag... - Stunts Involving 'Mob' Silliness Spreading (August 1, 2003)
...he use of cell phones and pagers by activists who demonstrated against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999. While Rheingold said he was amused by the latest re... - Fewer College Activists at Forefront (November 17, 2002)
... the University of San Francisco. Thousands of students protested the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle. The renewed activism is fueled partly, he said, by a... - Notes on Summits and Counter-Summits (August 1, 2003)
...n of water, which may become a reality for the 144 member countries of the World Trade Organization. It is a process that started a while ago, since seven multinationals have... - WTO redirects here. Alternate meanings: World Tourism Organization.
- January 1, 1995 - WTO came into existence, following the Marrakech Agreement.
- May 1, 1995 - Renato Ruggiero became director-general for a 4-year term.
- September 1, 1999 - Mike Moore became director-general. The post had been fiercely contested; eventually a compromise was reached with Mike Moore and Supachai Panitchpakdi taking half each of a six-year term.
- November 30, 1999 - 3rd ministerial conference in Seattle, USA. The conference itself ended in failure, with massive demonstrations and riots drawing worldwide attention.
- November 9 - November 13, 2001 - 4th ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar. Issuance of the Doha Declaration.
- December 11, 2001 - The People's Republic of China joined the WTO after 15 years of negotiations (the longest in GATT history).
- September 1, 2002 - Supachai Panitchpakdi became director-general.
- September 10 - September 14, 2003 - 5th ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico. An alliance of 22 southern states, lead by India, China and Brazil, resisted demands from the North for agreements on the so-called "Singapore issues": investment protection, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation, while calling for an end to agricultural subsidies within the EU and the US. The talks broke down without progress.
- John Braithwaite & Peter Drahos, Global Business Regulation, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
World Trade Organization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization which oversees a large number of agreements covering the "rules of trade" between its member states. It was created in 1995 as a secretariat to administer the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a trade treaty which laid much of the groundwork for the WTO. WTO headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland. Its current director-general is Supachai Panitchpakdi.
In the late 1990s, the WTO became a major target for protests by the Anti-globalization movement.
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Decision-making structure
Where most international organizations operate on a one country, one vote or even a weighted voting basis, many WTO decisions, such as adopting agreements (and revisions to them) are determined by consensus. Voting is only employed as a fall-back mechanism or in special cases. Critics observe that the consensus governance model moves power away from developing countries towards powerful first-world states, who can veto proposals they object to and prevent formal dissent on most measures they support.
The advantage of the consensus model is that it allows extremely rapid deployment of trade laws; it would otherwise take much longer (or not occur at all) in other forums. On the other hand, a system of this sort is skewed in favour of states that can continuously devote substantial resources to the analysis and negotiation of treaty terms. Moreover, under this system, agreements, once adopted, are very hard to change.
Unlike many other international organizations, the WTO has significant power to enforce its decisions, through the operation of its Dispute Settlement Body, an international trade court with the power to authorize sanctions against states which do not comply with its rulings.
History
Iran, which first asked to join the WTO in 1996, has seen its request repeatedly blocked by the United States, which lists Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. Russia is also not yet a member, and first applied to join GATT in 1993.
Related articles
External links
Anti-WTO links
Further reading