Introduction:
This paper aims to determine the various contexts within the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an organization specifically regarding its legal structure, the respected committees involved in its activities and together with their functions as committees. Furthermore, the paper wishes to distinguish the financial matters of the organization, how the organization finances are distributed, where these come from and identify the major shareholders of the company if any. Moreover, the paper aims to discuss the performance background of the WTO by conducting a SWOT analysis and reviewing its current performance by comparing available data with those gathered from the previous years.
Brief History:
In January 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) became the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Seven years of intensive negotiations in the Uruguay Round gave birth to an organization with vastly expanded responsibilities for international economic affairs. The WTO is undeniably a major player in the field of global governance, and its rules and processes will profoundly affect the future economic and political orientation of its 139 member countries as well as of the 30 countries in the process of joining.
By many objective criteria the WTO—and the GATT before it— have been remarkably successful at doing what they were mandated to do: liberalize trade and conduct international trade according to multilaterally agreed rules. Nevertheless, questions of a very fundamental nature are being raised about the role of the WTO in international affairs by a wide spectrum of interest groups. The manner in which these questions are addressed in the coming months and years will determine the role of the WTO in global governance ( 2001)
WTO Backgrounder:
The WTO is composed of about nearly 150 member/countries, which accounts for over the 97% of the world trade. Essentially, the WTO serves as a venue for member/countries governments to face and try to resolve out the business difficulties they are having. In the core of this all, the WTO exists because of the WTO agreements which have been reviewed, negotiated and promulgated by its members.
But the WTO does not only promote and liberalize trade, in some occasions it supports on maintaining and forcing trade barriers. This usually happens when trade becomes a threat to the members such ways as the spread of a disease. The WTO deals with trade matters in a global and non-global level. WTO is seen as an advocate body liberalizing trade but also serves as a forum for members to handle matter and resolve disputes and more specifically it does all these on a system of trade rules.
Fundamentally, the WTO serves as a place for members to resolve problems and finalize trade appointments. The first step for this is for the members to open up and talk with each other. Considering this, the WTO was born out of negotiations itself and everything else which the WTO does is made of negotiations themselves. The bulk of this work is taken from the 1986-94 negotiations which was also called as the Uruguay Round. This was under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade better known as GATT. Concurrently, the WTO now us the host for all these negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda which was launched last 2001.
Legal Structure:
The top level decision making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference which meets at least once in every 2 years. The entire membership constitutes the decisions which are most often times by consensus. While a majority vote is also plausible, this has never been used in the WTO and only happened in rare cases while under the GATT. The General Council also acts as the Trade Policy Review Body and the Dispute Settlement Body. The Goods Council, Services Council and Intellectual Property (TRIPS) council reports to the General Council.
A number of specialized committees also exist. These committees work out with groups and parties to make out agreements and a range of other areas such as the environment, development while also handling membership applications together with regional trade agreements. All of these members can take part in all meetings and assemblies excluding the Appellate, dispute settlements and plurilateral committees.
Highest level: Ministerial Conference
The topmost decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which has to meet at least every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions. The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.
Second level: General Council
The daily work of the ministerial conference is handled by three groups The General Council, The Dispute Settlement Body and The Trade Policy.
Review Body.
1. The General Council- is the WTO’s highest-level decision-making body in Geneva, meeting regularly to carry out the functions of the WTO. It has representatives (usually ambassadors or equivalent) from all member governments and has the authority to act on behalf of the ministerial conference which only meets about every two years. The council acts on behalf of the Ministerial Council on the entire WTO affairs. The current chairman is (Kenya) (2) The Dispute Settlement Body – Made up of all member governments, usually represented by ambassadors or equivalent. The current chairperson is (Norway). (3) The Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB) – the WTO General Council meets as the Trade Policy Review Body to undertake trade policy reviews of Members under the TRPM. The TPRB is thus open to all WTO Members. The current chairperson is (Canada).
Third level: Councils for Trade
The Councils for Trade work under the General Council. There are three councils – Council for Trade in Goods, Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and Council for Trade in Services – each council works in different fields. Apart from these three councils, six other bodies report to the General Council reporting on issues such as trade and development, the environment, regional trading arrangements and administrative issues.
1. Council for Trade in Goods- The workings of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which covers international trade in goods, are the responsibility of the Council for Trade in Goods. It is made up of representatives from all WTO member countries. The current chairperson is (Finland). (2) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights- Information on intellectual property in the WTO, news and official records of the activities of the TRIPS Council, and details of the WTO’s work with other international organizations in the field. (3) Council for Trade in Services- The Council for Trade in Services operates under the guidance of the General Council and is responsible for overseeing the functioning of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It’s open to all WTO members, and can create subsidiary bodies as required. The current chairperson is (Colombia).
Fourth level: Subsidiary Bodies
There are subsidiary bodies under each of the three councils.
(1). The Goods Council- subsidiary under the Council for Trade in Goods. It has 11 committees consisting of all member countries, dealing with specific subjects such as agriculture, market access, subsidies, anti-dumping measures and so on. Committees include the following: (a) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) Committee (b) State Trading Enterprises (c) Textiles Monitoring Body – Consists of a chairman and 10 members acting under it. (d) Groups dealing with notifications – process by which governments inform the WTO about new policies and measures in their countries. (2). The Services Council- subsidiary under the Council for Trade in Services which deals with financial services, domestic regulations and other specific commitments. (3). Dispute Settlement panels and Appellate Body- subsidiary under the Dispute Settlement Body to resolve disputes and the Appellate Body to deal with appeals.
Other committees
Trade and Environment, Trade and Development (Subcommittee on Least-Developed Countries), Regional Trade Agreements, Balance of Payments Restrictions, Budget, Finance and Administration, Working parties on Accession, Working groups on Trade, debt and finance, Trade and technology transfer.
Source of Finance:
The WTO Secretariat stationed in Geneva has approximately 600 faculty members and is led by a director-general with an annual budget of about 160 million Swiss francs. The WTO derives most of the profit for its annual budget from donations through its 148 members. The figures used are established according to a figure based on their share of the international deals.
Contributions by individual members:
The WTO miscellaneous income is generated from rental fees and sales of the WTO publications. They also manage a number of trust funds of which some are offered by members. These fees are used to manage organization activities in technical and training events which are meant to be used by the least developed and concurrently developing countries to take advantage of what the WTO offers for them and in the end promote sizeable benefit for the trading system of the WTO and its members.
The WTO’s total budget for the year 2004 is as follows:
* 2005 Budget for the WTO Secretariat: 164,131,000
* 2005 Budget for the Appellate Body and its Secretariat: 4,572,400
* Total WTO Budget for the year 2005: 168,703,400
Performance:
Strengths:
The main strength of the WTO as an organization builds on their main objectives of the WTO to promote and liberalize trade, serving as a forum handle matter and resolve disputes and in the end impact every member for their own greater good and prosperity.
Weaknesses:
The WTO exposes itself with weaknesses by placing the demands of the corporations of profit over the human and labor rights of individuals. The WTO which encourages a race by placing workers against each other rather than promoting internationally recognized labor standards. This has also complicated processes because the WTO cares not if the products made are produced even through child labor.
Opportunities:
The WTO can make their current threats into wonderful opportunities for themselves. Once they try to apply what the other organizations are aspiring to offer, they can in effect manage their problems and slowly by slowly ease up their worries as an organization faced with problems.
Threats:
Some of the threats to the WTO are the organizations which has developed their own organization of international economic governance which they deem be the base factor on which they can build political spare which provides a democratic global economy which aspires jobs for everyone, ensures that very individual is not neglected of their rights to food, water, education, and health care, promotes freedom and protection and finally the preservation of the shared environment where we live in for the coming generations to appreciate.
Conclusion:
The fundamental objective of the World Trade Organization is to elevate free trading between member/countries, induce economical development and in the end make the citizen’s lives more comfortable. While there may be some individuals and organization which believe that free trade is not the appropriate way to make people’s lives more prosperous because they think of the WTO as granting only the rich the means and ability to further enrich their selves at the expense of the general poor populace.
In lieu with this fundamental objective, the WTO also seeks to promote economic globalization which most anti-WTO movements and individuals consider questionable to handle. Furthermore, the WTO has been accused of partiality towards Multi National Corporations and other wealthy nations. WTO treaties had also been accused of a partiality and unfair bias toward Multi National Corporations (MNC) and wealthy nations.
Anti-WTO movements counter that small countries in the organization has or even no influence, despite its claim as advocating help for these growing countries, since they say that the influential states focus on their own commercial interests. Furthermore, they say that their claims are unheard and sensed to be ignored. The needs of the developing countries are often perceived to be ignored. In addition, the issues of health, safety and environment are steadfastly not given ample time.
Reference:
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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