Wto Full Form in English

A starting point for important information about the WTO. Once fully implemented, this agreement, the first multilateral agreement concluded at the WTO, will reduce trade costs by more than 14% and increase global exports by up to $1 trillion a year. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights sets minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property regulation. It was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994. [112] The WTO has 164 members and 24 observer governments. [101] Liberia became the 163rd member on July 14, 2016 and Afghanistan the 164th member on July 29, 2016. [102] [103] In addition to the states, the European Union and each EU country is a full member[104]. WTO Members do not have to be fully independent States; They need only be a customs territory enjoying full autonomy in the conduct of their external trade relations. For example, Hong Kong has been a member since 1995 (since 1997 under the name “Hong Kong, China”), ahead of the People`s Republic of China, which joined in 2001 after 15 years of negotiations. Taiwan joined the WTO in 2002 as a “separate customs territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu”. [105] The WTO Secretariat omits the official titles (such as Counsellor, First Secretary, Second Secretary and Third Secretary) of the members of the Permanent Representation of Taiwan to the WTO, with the exception of the titles of Permanent Representative and Deputy Permanent Representative. [106] Although tariffs and other barriers to trade have been significantly reduced through gatt and wto, the promise that free trade will accelerate economic growth, reduce poverty, and increase people`s incomes has been challenged by many critics. [122] Some prominent skeptics [Who?] cite the example of El Salvador.

In the early 1990s, they removed all quantitative barriers to imports and also lowered tariffs. However, the country`s economic growth has remained weak. On the other hand, Vietnam, which only began reforming its economy in the late 1980s, has enjoyed great success in deciding to follow the Chinese economic model and liberalize slowly, as well as implement protective measures for internal trade. Vietnam has largely succeeded in accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty without immediately removing significant barriers to trade. [123] [122] The WTO is essentially an alternative dispute resolution or mediation body that respects international rules of trade between nations. The organization provides a platform for member governments to negotiate and resolve trade issues with other members. The main objective of the WTO is to provide open channels of communication on trade between its Members. In May 2020, Director-General Roberto Azevedo announced his resignation on 31 August 2020.

[118] As of October 2020[update], an appointment and selection process with eight candidates is currently underway and the final selection is expected on 7 November 2020 with the consensus of 164 member countries. [119] A strong consensus had formed around Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala`s candidacy, but on October 28, it turned out that the U.S. representative had vetoed her nomination. [120] The WTO accession process is unique for each candidate country and the conditions for accession depend on the country`s level of economic development and current trade regimes. [88] The process takes about five years on average, but may take longer if the country is not fully engaged in the process or if political issues arise. The shortest accession negotiations were those of the Kyrgyz Republic, while the longest was that of Russia, which first applied to join GATT in 1993, was approved for accession in December 2011 and became a member of the WTO on 22 August 2012. [89] Kazakhstan has also had a lengthy accession negotiation process. The Working Group on the Accession of Kazakhstan was established in 1996 and approved for accession in 2015. [90] The second longest was that of Vanuatu, whose working group for Vanuatu`s accession was established on July 11, 1995.

After a final meeting of the working group in October 2001, Vanuatu requested more time to consider its conditions of membership. In 2008, it expressed interest in resuming and completing its accession to the WTO. The Working Party on Vanuatu`s Accession met informally on 4 April 2011 to discuss Vanuatu`s future accession to the WTO. The reconvened group fulfilled its mandate on 2 May 2011. The General Council formally approved the accession package for Vanuatu on 26 October 2011. On 24 August 2012, the WTO welcomed Vanuatu as its 157th Member. [91] An offer of membership will not be made until a consensus is reached among interested parties. [92] The final phase of accession includes bilateral negotiations between the candidate country and other members of the Working Party on Concessions and Commitments on tariff levels and market access for goods and services.

The new Member`s obligations are to apply equally to all WTO Members under normal non-discrimination rules, even if negotiated bilaterally. [95] For example, following its accession to the WTO, Armenia offered a flat-rate customs duty of 15% for access to its product market. Apart from the fact that collective bargaining is ad valorem, there are no specific or composite tariffs. In addition, there are no tariff quotas for industrial and agricultural products. [97] Armenia`s growth in economic and trade performance has been noted since its first review in 2010, particularly its recovery from the 2008 global financial crisis with an average annual GDP growth rate of 4%, despite some fluctuations. The Armenian economy has been characterized by low inflation, poverty reduction and substantial progress in strengthening its macroeconomic stability, with trade in goods and services, equivalent to 87% of GDP, playing an increasing role. [98] In the same year, 40 governments successfully concluded negotiations on duty-free trade in computer products, and 70 members concluded an agreement on financial services covering more than 95% of trade in banking, insurance, securities and financial information. The Customs Valuation Agreement, officially known as the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the GATT, sets out the customs valuation methods to be followed by Members. The main approach is “transaction value”. The WTO Agreement on Intellectual Property contains rules for trade in ideas and creativity. The rules define how copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical names used to identify products, industrial designs and undisclosed information such as trade secrets and intellectual property must be protected when it comes to trade. The WTO Annual Report provides a comprehensive overview of the WTO`s activities over the past year and contains information on the WTO`s budget and staff.

Seven rounds of GATT negotiations took place (1949 to 1979). The first genuine GATT trade cycles (1947-1960) focused on further tariff reductions. Then, in the mid-sixties, the Kennedy Round produced a GATT anti-dumping agreement and a section on development. The Tokyo Round of the seventies was the first major attempt to remove trade barriers that do not exist in the form of tariffs and to improve the system by adopting a series of agreements on non-tariff barriers that, in some cases, interpreted existing GATT rules and, in other cases, are completely new. Since not all GATT members accepted these plurilateral agreements, they were often informally referred to as “codes”. (With the Uruguay Round, several of these codes were amended and converted into multilateral commitments accepted by all WTO Members. Only four of them remained plurilateral (those relating to government procurement, beef, civil aircraft and dairy products), but in 1997 WTO members agreed to terminate the agreements on beef and dairy products, leaving only two. [27]) Despite attempts in the mid-1950s and 1960s to establish some form of institutional mechanism for international trade, the GATT functioned provisionally for nearly half a century as a semi-institutionalized multilateral treaty regime. [28] This leads to a more prosperous, peaceful and responsible economic environment. Decisions in the WTO are generally taken by consensus of all Members and ratified by Members` parliaments. Trade disputes feed into the WTO dispute settlement process, where the focus is on the interpretation of agreements and commitments and how to ensure that Members` trade policies are consistent with them.

This reduces the risk that disputes will turn into political or military conflicts. Once all the necessary background information has been obtained, the working group will focus on issues of divergence between WTO rules and international and domestic trade policy and the laws of the applicant. .

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