WTO and Canada
conference in Havana in 1948 adopted a complex charter for an international body to preside over issues of trade called the International Trade organization (ITO). U.S. Congress never signed the ITO charter so it was never ratified but GATT not requiring U.S. ratification continued to exist. By default GATT became the international body dealing with trade. GATT had three main objectives:
To help trade flow as freely as possible,
To achieve further liberalization gradually through negotiation,
And to set up an impartial means of settling disputes.
For 47 years GATT helped establish a prosperous multilateral trading system. But by the 1980s an overhaul was due. The Uruguay Round brought about that overhaul. It was the largest trade negotiation ever. The Uruguay Round has produced the most fundamental reform of the world trading system since the establishment of the GATT in 1947. The establishment of the WTO in 1995 contributed to a necessary strengthening of the global trading system,...
The November 2001 declaration of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Doha, Qatar, provides the mandate for negotiations on a range of subjects, and other work including issues concerning the implementation of the present agreements.
Some of the major topics under negotiation are:
1.Agriculture (AGRI)
2.Services (SERV)
3.WTO rules on unfair trade practices: anti-dumping and subsidies (PRAC)
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." http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm
After giving an introduction of the World trade…
