World Trade Organizations

World Trade Organizations Synopsis

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental Organization that regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. It is the largest international economic Organization in the world. The WTO deals with regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986-1994). The present book is a result of deep research conducted on the topic of World Trade Organization. It is in continuation to the earlier works by the author on the contemporary trends of WTO with special emphasis laid on the politics of regional trading blocs in this book. The ever expanding consensus on the co-existence of politics and economics is evident from the treatment of the topic on WTO. The book thus unfolds the deficiencies and imbalances witnessed under the WTO system, and points to the critical choices to be made by the member nations of WTO in future negotiations.