The WTO precursor General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
When was WTO established?
The WTO began life on
1 January 1995
, but its trading system is half a century older. Since 1948, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had provided the rules for the system. (The second WTO ministerial meeting, held in Geneva in May 1998, included a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the system.)
Why was the WTO established?
The goal of the WTO is
to ensure that trade flows as smoothly and predictably as possible
. The WTO was born out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was established in 1947. If a trade dispute occurs, the WTO works to resolve it.
Who controls the WTO?
The WTO is run by
its member governments
. All major decisions are made by the membership as a whole, either by ministers (who meet at least once every two years) or by their ambassadors or delegates (who meet regularly in Geneva). Decisions are normally taken by consensus.
What was before WTO?
The World Trade Organization’s predecessor,
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
, was established after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international economic cooperation – notably the Bretton Woods institutions known as the World Bank and the International …
Where is the headquarter of WTO?
Geneva, Switzerland
, where the WTO headquarters is located, is a unique place, with many United Nations and other international organizations, as well as missions to the WTO. The Centre William Rappard (CWR) is the name of the building that has been home to the WTO Secretariat since the WTO was established in 1995.
Who is CEO of WTO?
| Director-General of the World Trade Organization | Website www.wto.org |
|---|
Is GATT and WTO same?
The WTO replaced GATT as an international organization
, but the General Agreement still exists as the WTO’s umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations.
Who is not a member of WTO?
Only 14 countries are not WTO members. These nations do not wish to become members. They are
Aruba
, Eritrea, Kiribati, Kosovo, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Monaco, Nauru, North Korea, Palau, the Palestinian Territories, San Marino, Sint Maarten, and Tuvalu.
How is WTO funded?
The WTO derives most of the
income for its annual budget from contributions by its Members
. These are established according to a formula based on their share of international trade. Miscellaneous income is earned from rental fees and sales of WTO print and electronic publications.
How many countries are the members of WTO?
The WTO is run by its members, of which there are currently
164
. Most of them are sovereign states, but some are not: for example, Hong Kong has been a member separately from both the UK (before 1997) and China (since 1997) because it has always operated a separate customs regime.
Who founded GATT?
The 23 founding members were:
Australia
, Belgium, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Ceylon, Chile, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, India, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Southern Rhodesia, Syria, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States.
Why did GATT change to WTO?
It was refined over eight rounds of negotiations, which led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It replaced the GATT on 1 January 1995. The GATT was focused on trade in goods. It
aimed to liberalize trade by reducing tariffs and removing quotas among member countries
.
Why WTO is better than GATT?
The WTO covers services and intellectual property as well.
The WTO dispute settlement system is faster
, more automatic than the old GATT system. Its rulings cannot be blocked. GATT, the agreement, does still exist, but it is no longer the main set of rules for international trade.
When and where was WTO founded?
| Organisation mondiale du commerce (in French) Organización Mundial del Comercio (in Spanish) | Formation 1 January 1995 | Type Intergovernmental organization | Purpose Reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade | Headquarters Centre William Rappard, Geneva, Switzerland |
|---|
When did India join WTO?
Yet, India enthusiastically joined the WTO in
1995
. India had taken on onerous obligations, evident from the fact that it had to change its domestic law completely to bring itself in line with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
