A presentation on-

World Trade Organization

Prepared for-
Mehedi Hasan Md. Hefjur Rahman
Associate Professor
Business Administration Discipline
Khulna University
 Prepared by-
Name ID
Abdur Rakib Akon 070305
Reza Al Saad 070312
Md. Masrul Mollah 070314
Md. Nazmul Huda 070323
 WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only
global international organization dealing with
the rules of trade between nations. At its heart
are the WTO agreements, negotiated and
signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations
and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to
help producers of goods and services,
exporters, and importers conduct their
business.
 WTO-Fact file
• 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: Director-General, Pascal Lamy
• Functions:
– Administering WTO trade agreements
– Forum for trade negotiations
– Handling trade disputes
– Monitoring national trade policies
– Technical assistance and training for developing countries
– Cooperation with other international organizations
 WTO – Agreements
We focused on the following agreements:
• Agreement on Agriculture
• Agreement on Textiles and Clothing
• Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights
 Agreement on
Agriculture
• Proposition to make a more generous offer for
reducing trade-distorting domestic support for
agriculture.
• Brazil has emphasized reductions in trade-distorting
domestic subsidies, especially by the United States
(some of which it successfully challenged in the
WTO U.S.-Brazil cotton dispute), while India has
insisted on a large number of special products that
would not be exposed to wider market opening.
 Agreement on Textiles and
Clothing
• The object of this negotiation has been to
secure the eventual integration of the textiles
and clothing sector — where much of the trade
is currently subject to bilateral quotas
negotiated under the Multifibre Arrangement
(MFA) — into the GATT on the basis of
strengthened GATT rules and disciplines.
• the phasing-out of MFA restrictions.
 Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights
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.
 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights Contd.
TRIPS requires member states to provide strong protection for
intellectual property rights. For example, under TRIPS:

•Copyright terms must extend to 50 years after the death of the

author, although films and photographs are only required to have
fixed 50 and to be at least 25 year terms, respectively.(Art. 7(2),(4))
•Copyright must be granted automatically, and not based upon any
"formality", such as registrations or systems of renewal.
•Computer programs must be regarded as "literary works" under
copyright law and receive the same terms of protection.

And there are many other requirements.

 WTO Summits

There were a number of WTO Summits. We

focused on important two summits:

•Doha Development Round

•Uruguay Round
 Doha Development Round
• The Doha Development Round or Doha
Development Agenda (DDA) is the current trade-
negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
which commenced in November 2001.
• Objective is to lower trade barriers around the world,
which allows countries to increase trade globally.
• The Doha Round began with a ministerial-level meeting
in Doha, Qatar in 2001. Subsequent ministerial meetings
took place in Cancun, Mexico (2003), and Hong Kong
(2005). Related negotiations took place in Geneva,
Switzerland (2004, 2006, 2008); Paris, France (2005);
and Potsdam, Germany (2007). Increase trade globally.
 Evaluation
• The system helps promote peace
• Disputes are handled constructively
• Rules make life easier for all
• Freer trade cuts the costs of living
• It provides more choice of products and qualities
• Trade raises incomes
• Trade stimulates economic growth
• The basic principles make life more efficient
• Governments are shielded from lobbying
• The system encourages good government
 Criticism

• The WTO dictates policy

• The WTO is for free trade at any cost
• Commercial interests take priority over development,
over the environment and over health and safety
• The WTO destroys jobs, worsens poverty
• Small countries are powerless in the WTO
• The WTO is the tool of powerful lobbies
• Weaker countries are forced to join the WTO
• The WTO is undemocratic
 Uruguay Round
• The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of multilateral trade
negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), spanning from
1986-1994 and embracing 110 countries as “contracting
parties”. The Round transformed the GATT into the World Trade
Organization.
The main objectives of the Uruguay Round were:
• to reduce agricultural subsidies
• to put restrictions on foreign investment, and
• to begin the process of opening trade in services like banking
and insurance.
They also wanted to draft a code to deal with copyright violation
and other forms of intellectual property rights.
 Evaluation
Here, a long list of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions and
understandings was adopted. In fact, the agreements fall into a
simple structure with six main parts:

•an umbrella agreement (the Agreement Establishing the WTO);

•agreements for each of the three broad areas of trade that the
WTO covers: goods and investment (the Multilateral Agreements
on Trade in Goods including the GATT 1994 and the Trade Related
Investment Measures (TRIMS)), General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS), and Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS);
•dispute settlement (DSU); and
•reviews of governments' trade policies (TPRM).
 Criticism

• Paying insufficient attention to the special

needs of developing countries. - Oxfam
• Again, intellectual property and industrial
tariffs as setting up too many constraints on
policy-making and human needs. - Health Gap
and Global Trade Watch
Thank You