OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY • The World Trade Organization (WTO) came into being on January 1st 1995.
It was
• To have an understanding of WTO and the principles and functions of WTO
• To study the structure of WTO
• To study the role of WTO
• To study the relevance of WTO
• To study the provision of TRIPs, TRIMs of WTO
• To have a knowledge of different agreements done under WTO guidance
• To study role of WTO in developing countries• To study the current issues of WTO
What is the World Trade Organization ?
“The World Trade Organization is‘member-driven’, with decisions
taken by Generalagreement among all member of governments and itdeals
with the rules of trade between nations at aglobal or near-global level. But
there is more to it than that.”
They deal with: agriculture, textiles and clothing,banking,
telecommunications, government purchases,industrial standards and
product safety, foodsanitation regulations, intellectual property, and
muchmore.
The WTO agreements are lengthy and complexbecause they are
legal texts covering a wide range ofactivities.
WTO: The Beginnings/ History
• 164 members since 29 July 2016 , with dates of WTO membership.
• Observers(31)
Why WTO?
• To arrange the implementation, administration and operations of multilateral
(involving three or more participants) and Plurilateral trade agreements (power which
shared between different countries)
• To arrange the forum for deliberations for the member nations in regard to their
multilateral trade relations in issues deal with under the agreements
• To provide a framework for implementing of the results arising out of the
deliberations (long and care full agreements/consideration) which taken place at
ministerial conference level
• To manage the created understanding on rules and procedure governing the
settlement of disputes
• To manage effectively and efficiency the trade policy review mechanism (TRIM)
• To create more together relationship with all nations in respect of global economic
policy-making, it would cooperate with the IMF and the world bank & its affiliated
Organisations.
FUNCTIONS OF WTO
• Administering WTO trade agreements
• Forum for trade negotiations
• Handling trade disputes
the outcome of the lengthy (1986-1994) Uruguay round of GATT negotiations. The
WTO was essentially an extension of GATT.
• It extended GATT in two major ways. First GATT became only one of the three major
trade agreements that went into the WTO (the other two being the General Agreement
on Trade in Services (GATS) and the agreements on Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)).
• Second the WTO was put on a much sounder institutional footing than GATT. With
GATT the support services that helped maintain the agreement had come into being in
an ad hoc manner as the need arose. The WTO by contrast is a fully fledged
institution (GATT also was, at least formally, only an agreement between contracting
parties and had no independent existence of its own while the WTO is a corporate
body recognized under international law).
FACT FILE OF WTO
Location Geneva, Switzerland
Established 1 January 1995
Created by Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94)
Membership 153 countries on 23 July 2008
Budget 189 million Swiss francs for 2009
Secretariat staff 625
Head Pascal Lamy (Director- General)
Current WTO members
• Monitoring national trade policies
• Technical assistance and training for developing countries
• Cooperation with other international organizations
PRINCIPLES OF WTO
The basic principles of the WTO (according to the WTO):
• Trade Without Discrimination
1. Most-favoured-nation (MFN): treating other people equally Under the
WTO agreements, countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading
partners. Grant someone a special favour (such as a lower customs duty rate for one
of their products) and you have to do the same for all other WTO members.
2. National treatment: Treating foreigners and locals equally Imported and
locally-produced goods should be treated equally — at least after the foreign goods
have entered the market. The same should apply to foreign and domestic services,
and to foreign and local trademarks, copyrights and patents.
• Freer trade: gradually, through negotiation
 Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious means of encouraging
trade. The barriers concerned include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such
as import bans or quotas that restrict quantities selectively
• Predictability: through binding and transparency
Sometimes, promising not to raise a trade barrier can be as important as
lowering one, because the promise gives businesses a clearer view of their future
opportunities. With stability and predictability, investment is encouraged, jobs are
created and consumers can fully enjoy the benefits of competition — choice and lower
prices. The multilateral trading system is an attempt by governments to make the
business environment stable and predictable.
• Promoting fair competition
The WTO is sometimes described as a “free trade” institution, but that is
not entirely accurate. The system does allow tariffs and, in limited circumstances,
other forms of protection. More accurately, it is a system of rules dedicated to open,
fair and undistorted competition.
• Encouraging development and economic reform.
The WTO system contributes to development. On the other hand,
developing countries need flexibility in the time they take to implement the system’s
agreements. And the agreements themselves inherit the earlier provisions of GATT
that allow for special assistance and trade concessions for developing countries.
STRUCTURES OF WTO
Ministerial Conference
Dispute Trade Policy Settlement Body General Council Review BodyThe Committee
Intellectual on T&D and Goods Council Services Council Property Council T&E
ROLE OF WTO
• The main goal of WTO is to help the trading industry to become smooth, fair, free
and predictable. It was organized to become the administrator of multilateral trade and
business agreements between its member nations. It supports all occurring
negotiations for latest agreements for trade. WTO also tries to resolve trade disputes
between member nations.
• Multi-lateral agreements are always made between several countries in the past.
Because of this, such agreements become very difficult to negotiate but are so
powerful and influential once all the parties agree and sign the multi-lateral agreement.
WTO acts as the administrator. If there are unfair trade practices or dumping and
there is complain filed, the staff of WTO are expected to investigate and check if there
are violations based on the multi-lateral agreements.
TRIMs, AND TRIPS OF WTO
1. Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)
• TRIMs refers to certain conditions or restrictions imposed by a
governments in respect of foreign investment in the country
• The agreement on TRIMs provides that no contracting party shall apply
any TRIM which is inconsistent with the WTO Articles.
2. Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS)
• The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) is an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization
(WTO) that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP)
regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members
• It was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994.
• TRIPS contains requirements that nations laws must meet for copyright rights,
including the rights of performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting
organizations; geographical indications, including appellations of origin; industrial
designs; integrated circuit layout-designs; patents; monopolies for the developers of
new plant varieties; trademarks; trade dress; and undisclosed or confidential
information.
• specifies enforcement procedures, remedies, and dispute resolution procedures.
THE RELEVANCE OF WTO
• The system helps promote peace.
• The system allows disputes to be handled constructively.
• A system based on rules rather than power makes life easier for all.
• Freer trade cuts the cost of living.
• It gives consumers more choice and a broader range of qualities to choose from.
• Trade raises incomes.
• Trade stimulates economic growth and that can be good news for employment
• The basic principles make the system economically more efficient, and they cut
costs.
THE AGREEMENTS
• The WTO is ‘rules-based’; its rules are negotiated agreements• Overview: a
navigational guide• Plurilateral agreement
• Further changes on the horizon, the Doha Agenda
• Some of the agreements of WTO:
-Tariffs: more bindings and closer to zero
-The Agriculture Agreement: new rules and commitments
-Textiles: back in the mainstream
-Intellectual property: protection and enforcement
The agreement covers five broad issues:
• How basic principles of the trading system and other international intellectual
property agreements should be applied
• How to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights• How countries should
enforce those rights adequately in their own territories
• How to settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the WTO
• Special transitional arrangements during the period when the new system is being
introduced

Developing Countries

How the WTO deals with the special needs of an increasingly important group
• In the agreements: more time, better terms
• Legal assistance: a Secretariat service
• Least-developed countries: special focus
• Committees-Trade and Development Committee
-Sub-committee on Least-Developed Countries
-The Doha agenda committees
• WTO technical cooperation
• Participation in the system: opportunities and concerns• Erosion of preferences
• The ability to adapt: the supply-side

Recent Issues

• Trade to expand by 9.5% in 2010 after a dismal 2009, WTO reports

• Why was the trade decline so large?
• Trade prospects for 2010
• Lamy calls for addressing macro-economic imbalances through cooperation
• 32 WTO members take anti-dumping actions during first half of 2010
• Transparency mechanism for preferential trade arrangements set for approval
• Market access for LDCs• Trade agreements between developing countries
• Overseeing national trade policies: the TPRM
• Trade policy reviews: ensuring transparency

CONCLUSION

• It is the place where the member country comes and talks together and shares their
grievance in order to resolve their problem related to International trade.
• The countries make their decisions through various councils and committees, whose
membership consists of all WTO members.
• The system helps promote peace, by handling Dispute of member countries. It
provides free trade which cuts the costs of living and provides more choice of products
and qualities and stimulates economic growth.
• The WTO agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell out
the principles of liberalization, and the permitted exceptions. They include individual
countries’ commitments to lower customs tariffs and other trade barriers, and to open
and keep open services markets. They set procedures for settling disputes. They
prescribe special treatment for developing countries. They require governments to
make their trade policies transparent
• WTO deals with the special needs of developing countries as two thirds of the WTO
members are developing countries and they play an increasingly important and active
role in the WTO because of their numbers, because they are becoming more
important in the global economy, and because they increasingly look to trade as a vital
tool in their development efforts.
 The World Bank
United Nations System
is an international financial institution that provides loans to
developing countries for capital programs.
The World Bank Group
“Working for a World Free of Poverty”

 Monetary International Financial Organization The World Bank

 Formed on July 1944
 Headquarters – Washington D.C,United States The World Bank
 Parent organization : The World Bank Group IBRD + IDA
 362 members International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)

Jim Yong Kim President The World Bank  189 countries

1. The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five
international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing
countries. It is the largest and most famous development bank in the
world and is an observer at the United Nations Development Group.
2. Its five organizations are the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International
Development Association (IDA), the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
(MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment
Disputes (ICSID).
The World Bank operates under the leadership and direction
of the president and organizational units responsible for regions,
sectors, and general management.
World Bank is playing main role of providing loans for
development works to member countries, especially to
underdeveloped countries.
The World Bank provides long-term loans for various
development projects of 5 to 20 years duration.
 Middle-income developing countries

International Development Association (IDA)
 173 countries
 Interest free loans (credits)
 Poorest countries
Objectives
 To provide long-run capital to member countries for
economic reconstruction and development.
 To induce long-run capital investment for assuring Balance
of Payments (BoP) equilibrium and balanced development of
international trade.
 To provide guarantee for loans granted to small and large
units and other projects of member countries.
 To ensure the implementation of development projects so as
to bring about a smooth transference from a war-time to
peace economy
 To promote capital investment in member countries by the
following ways;
 1. To provide guarantee on private loans or capital
investment.
2. If private capital is not available even after providing
guarantee, then IBRD provides loans for productive
activities on considerate conditions.
Functions
 World Bank provides various technical services to the
member countries. For this purpose, the Bank has
established “The Economic Development Institute” and a
Staff College in Washington
 Bank can grant loans to a member country up to 20% of its
share in the paid-up capital
 The quantities of loans, interest rate and terms and
conditions are determined by the Bank itself.
 Generally, Bank grants loans for a particular project duly
submitted to the Bank by the member country.
 The debtor nation has to repay either in reserve currencies or
in the currency in which the loan was sanctioned
 Bank also provides loan to private investors belonging to
member countries on its own guarantee, but for this loan
private investors have to seek prior permission from those
counties where this amount will be collected.
World Bank’s Contributions to India
 India is a founder-member of the Bretten Woods twins, i.e.,
the IMF and the World Bank; it has a permanent place on the
Bank's Executive Board
 India has been the largest recipient of development finance
from the Bank. India's share in the Bank's total lending to all
countries in 1988 was 15%.
 World Bank's subsidiary institution international
development Association (IDA) provides loans from its soft
window.
 In 1950, the World Bank founded Aid India Club to provide
massive assistance to finance India's developmental plans.
Aid India Club is a consortium of the major lending
countries, such as, U.K., U.S A., Germany, France, Japan,
Canada, etc.
 The World Bank's assistance to India has been mainly for
development purposes. The major projects finance by the
Bank are railway, generation of power, multi-purpose
projects, port development, development of aviation, iron
and steel industry, coal mining, agriculture,
telecommunication, etc.
 The World Bank has also extended loans to the financial
institutions like Industrial Development Bank of India
(IDBI) and Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of
India (ICICI).
 The World Bank has also provided useful technical
assistance in India's development plans. It has sent a number
of missions to India to evaluate the working and progress of
her Five Year Plans and to asses the foreign exchange
requirements of the country
The World Bank Group has set two goals for the world to
achieve by 2030:
 End extreme poverty by decreasing the percentage of people
living on less than $1.90 a day to no more than 3%
 Promote shared prosperity by fostering the income growth of
the bottom 40% for every country