World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an
international organization which oversees a large number of
agreements covering the "rules of trade" between its member
states. It was created in 1995 as a secretariat to administer
the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Unlike many other international organizations, the WTO has
significant power to enforce its decisions, through the
operation of its
Dispute Settlement Body[?], an international trade court
with the power to authorize sanctions against states which are
not complying with its rulings.
Where most international organizations operate on a
one country, one vote[?] basis, WTO agreements (and
revisions to them) must be adopted by
consensus. Commentators have concluded that the consensus
governance model moves power away from developing countries, and
towards large first world states, who can veto proposals they
object to, and prevent formal dissent on most measures they
support.
In addition, the system in which agreements, once adopted,
are very hard to change, is skewed in favour of states that can
continuously devote substantial resources to the analysis and
negotiation of treaty terms.
The strength of the consensus model is that it allows
extremely rapid globalization and agreement to standards, which
would take much longer (or not occur at all) in other fora.
In the late 1990s, the WTO became a major target for protests
by the
Anti-globalization movement.
The WTO headquarters are located in
Geneva,
Switzerland. The current head (director-general) is
Supachai Panitchpakdi.
Iran, which first asked to join the WTO in
1996, has seen its request repeatedly blocked by the
United States, which lists Iran as a state sponsor of
terrorism.
January 1,
1995 - WTO came into existence, following the
Marrakech Agreement.
May 1, 1995 -
Renato Ruggiero[?] became director-general for a 4 year
term.
September 1,
1999 -
Mike Moore became director-general. The post had been
fiercely contested; eventually a compromise was reached with
Mike Moore and
Supachai Panitchpakdi taking half each of a six year term.
November 30, 1999 - 3rd ministerial conference in
Seattle,
USA. The conference itself ended in failure, but the riots
were spectacular.
November 9 -
November 13,
2001 - 4th ministerial conference in
Doha,
Qatar.
December 11, 2001 - The
People's Republic of China joined the WTO after 15 years of
negotiations (the longest in GATT history).
September 1,
2002 -
Supachai Panitchpakdi became director-general.
- John Braithwaite & Peter Drahos, Global Business
Regulation, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
