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WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION: IT’S IMPACT ON DEVELOPING

ECONOMY LIKE INDIA

ABSTRACT

The birth of World Trade Organization (WTO) Came into existence on January 1, 1995 holds a

great promise for the entire world economy in respect of international trade. This Organization

will administer the new global trade rules for in international trade, which amounted to nearly

five trillion dollar in 1994 for goods and services.

Peter Sutherland, the first Director General of WTO said, ―The WTO binds nations in a global

co-operative endeavor to raise income and create good jobs through fair and open

trade.‖ The latest issue of GATT/WTO New ( January,1995) observed that the new global trade

rules were achieved after seven years of negotiations among were more than 120 countries and

through the WTO agreements and market access commitments; world income is expected to rise

by over 800 billion dollar annual by the year 2008 and annual global trade.

Keywords: Economy, Impact, Organization, Services, Trade



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1. INTRODUCTION

World Trade Organization and Indian Economy:

The World Trade Organization is playing an important role for administering the new global

trade rules in the following ways:-

1. Trade Agreement:- The WTO administers, through various councils and committees ,the 28

agreements contained in the final act of the Uruguay Round, plus a number of plurilateral

agreements, including one government procurement.

2. Tariffs Rules:- The WTO also oversees the implementation of significant tariff cuts

(averaging 40 percent) and reduction of non-tariff measures agreed to in the trade negotiations.

3. Trade Watch Dog:- The WTO is a watchdog of international Trade, regularly examining the

trade regimes of individual members .In its various bodies, members flag proposed or draft

measures by others that can trade conflicts. Members are also required to notify in detail various

trade measures and statistics which are maintained by the WTO in a large data base.

4. Various Conciliation Norms:- The WTO provides several conciliation mechanisms for

finding an amicable solution to trade conflicts that can arise among members.

5. Trade Disputability Settlement :- Trade disputes that cannot be solved through bilateral talks

are adjudicated under the WTO Dispute Settlement Court Panels of Independent expert are

established to examine disputed in the light of WHO rules and provide rulings .This tougher

streamlined procedure ensures equal treatment for all training patterns and encourages members

to live up to their obligations.

6. WTO is consultant body:- The WTO is a management consultant for world trade. Its

economists keep a close watch on the pulse of the global economy and provide studies on the



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main trade issues of implementation or Uruguay Round results through a newly established

Development division and strengthened technical co-operation and training division.

7. Checks Of Trade Barriers:- The WTO will be forum where countries continuously negotiate

exchange of barriers all over the world. And the WTO already has a substantial agenda for

further negotiations in many areas.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an organization that intends to supervise and

liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1,1995 under

the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),

which commenced in 1948. The organization deals with regulation of trade between participating

countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade IJRIM Volume 2, Issue

6 (June 2012) (ISSN 2231-4334) agreements, and a dispute resolution process aimed at

enforcing participants‘ adherence to WTO agreements which are signed by representative of

member governments and ratified by their parliaments.[4][5] Most of the issue that the WTO

focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986-

1994).

The organization is currently endeavoring to persist with a trade negotiation called the Doha

Development Agenda (or Doha Round), Which was launched in 2001 to enhance equitable

participation of poorer countries which represent a majority of the world‘s population. However,

the negotiation has been dogged by ―disagreement between exporters of agricultural bulk

commodities and countries with large numbers of subsistence farmers on the precise terms of a

‗special safeguard measure‘ to protect farmers from surges in imports .At this time, the future of

the Doha Round is uncertain.‖



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It can be expected that the WTO is different from and an improvement upon GATT, on the

ground that firstly, the WTO will be more global in its membership than the GATT. Its

perspective membership is already around 150 countries and territories with many other

considering accession.

Secondly, the WTO has a far wider scope than its predecessor, bringing into the multi-lateral-

trading system for the first time commercial activities like trade in services, the exchange of

ideas in the context of intellectual property protection and investment.

This infect organization-WTO has been passing through trials tribulations and challenges.

But the organization has taken the stresses and strains it had to bear in its infancy rather well. It

has already begun to how promising signs of growing into a vibrant body which is destined to

play a vital role in future development of world trade and economy.

Dispute Settlement Mechanism of WTO

The WTO presently offers a far more powerful mechanism in order to resolve disputes over

trade, arising out of growing competition for markets among the members. Under the present

situation facing frequent quarrels and disputes among the trading partners a trade-dispute

settlement mechanism is very much required. WTO in now changed with the responsibility to

provide such mechanism.

A recent repot of WTO observed that developing countries are emerging more as active user of

the multilateral dispute-settlement mechanism than the developed nations. Such a move has been

notice of more so in the World Trade Organization than the General Agreement on tariffs and

Trade. On March 5, 1996, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) established two panels at the

request of Philippines and Costa Rica. The DSB decision raised the number of active panels in



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WTO to four, with three of them involving developing country complainants. IJRIM Volume 2,

Issue 6 (June 2012) (ISSN 2231-4334) The first WTO dispute, which had been settled

bilaterally, involved two developing countries Singapore and Malaysia. An in depth analysis

shows that in contrast, the vast majority of dispute-settlement cases in GATT were between

developed countries.

Improvements in the WTO‘s dispute-settlement procedure over those of GATT have facilitated

the lodging of formal complaints for all members.

These improvements include:-

a) Near automatically of establishment of panels and adoption of their reports and

b) Precise deadlines for every step of the panel process.

At present the WTO is making an all-out effort to evolve a consensus on controversial and key

issue like inclusion of social clause on trade agenda. The Director General of Geneva-based

WTO, MNr. Renato Ruggiero says that immediate challenge is to build a consensus on the

subject of trade and labor standards in order to avoid this becoming a divisive issue.

The new WTO agreement extends the amount of Government procurement opened to

international by 10 times compared to the earlier agreement. However ,it remains only a pluri-

lateral agreement with limited membership.

WTO - The Third Pillar in International Economic Relations and Its Benefits:-

Besides the World Bank and the IMF, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is now being

considered as the third pillar in the past – war international economic relations. The WTO will

have three main legal instruments. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GAIT) along

with associated agreements and Jurisprudence the General Agreement on Trade in Service

(GATTS) and the agreement on Trade-related intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).



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A particularly noteworthy feature of WTO is that its highest decision making body would be the

Ministerial Conference which alone will have the authority to take decisions on all matters under

any of the agreements covered by the WTO. During the intervals between the meetings of the

Ministerial Conference, the General Council would carry out its functions, including its role as

the Dispute Settlement Body.

Reacting to establishment of the WTO and ratification of the Final Act by different countries,

trade experts contend that the significant reductions in tariff and non- tariff barriers negotiated in

the round would give the international trading environment a new dynamism and vitality.

Enumerating the benefits of the WTO, it can be observed that increasing market access

opportunities in the context of their liberalized economic policies. IJRIM Volume 2, Issue 6

(June 2012) (ISSN 2231-4334) Thus, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will strengthen the

institutional framework for trade relations among member countries. Accordingly, with the

establishment of WTO, a new trade order was likely to emerge.

HISTORY OF W.T.O

Harry White(1) and John Maynard Keynes at the Bretton Woods Conference – Both economists

had been strong advocates of a liberal international trade environment, and recommended the

establishment of three institutions: the IMF (fiscal and monetary issues), the World Bank

(financial and structural issues), and the ITO ( international economic cooperation).

The WTO‘s predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established

after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international

economy cooperation- notably the Bretton Woods institutions known as the World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund. A comparable international institution for trade, named the

International Trade Organization was successfully negotiated. The ITO was to be a United



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Nations specialized agency and would address not only trade barriers but other issues indirectly

related to trade, including employment, investment, restrictive business practices, and

commodity agreements. But the ITO treaty was not approved by the U.S. and few other

signatories and never went into effect.

In the absence of an international organization for trade, the GATT would over the years

―transform itself‖ into a de facto international organizational.

First ministerial conference

Main article: WTO Ministerial Conference of 1996

The inaugural ministerial conference was held in Singapore in 1996. Its primary purpose was to

initiate an international effort among global trading nations to overhaul the structure and

mechanisms of the General Agreement and success achieved by that system since its inception in

1948 .

Disagreements, largely between developed and developing economies, emerged over four issues

initiated by this conference; afterward, these were collectively referred to as the ―Singapore

issues‖.

Second ministerial conference

Main article: WTO Ministerial Conference of 1998 was held in Geneva in Switzerland.

Third ministerial conferenceIJRIM Volume 2, Issue 6 (June 2012) (ISSN 2231-4334)

Main article: WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 The Third conference in Seattle,

Washington ended in failure, with massive demonstrations and police and National Guard crowd

control efforts drawing worldwide attention.

Fourth ministerial conference

Main article: WTO Ministerial conference of 2001



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Was held in Doha In Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. The Doha Development Round was launched

at the conference. The conference also approved the joining of China, which became the 143rd

member to join.

Fifth ministerial conference

Main article: WTO Ministerial Conference of 2003 The ministerial conference was held in

Cancun, Mexico, aiming at forging agreement on the Doha round. An alliance of 22 southern

states, the G20 (led by India, China and Brazil), resisted demands from the North for agreements

on the so-called ―Singapore issue‖ and called for an end to agricultural subsides within the EU

and the US. The talks broke down without progress.

Sixth ministerial conference

For more details on this topic, see WTO Ministerial Conference 2005.

The sixth WTO conference Ministerial was held in Hong Kong from 13 December -18

December 2005.It was considered vital if the four-year-old Doha Development Agenda

negotiations were to move forward sufficiently to conclude the round in 2006 .In this meeting ,

countries agreed to phase out all their agriculture export subsides by the end of 2013 ,and

terminate any cotton export subsides by the end of 2006. Further concessions to developing

countries included an agreement to introduce duty free, tariff frees access

For goods from the Least Development Countries, following the Everything But Arms initiative

of the European Union-but with up to 3% of tariff lines exempted .other major issue were left for

further negotiation to be completed by the end of 2006.



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Functions of WTO

Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most

important: the WTO oversees the implementation, administration and operation of the

covered agreements. It provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes.

Additionally, it is the WTO's duty to review and propagate the national trade policies,

and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in

global economic policy-making. Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of

developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO

rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training. The WTO is also a

center of economic research and analysis: regular assessments of the global trade

picture in its annual publications and research reports on specific topics are produced

by the organization. Finally, the WTO cooperates closely with the two other components

of the Bretton Woods system, the IMF and the World Bank (Wikipedia, 2012).

Role of WTO – A Critical View

Ten years ago, a new World Trade Organisation that put developing country needs at the

centre of the international trade negotiation agenda was proposed. The Ministerial

Declaration adopted at the start of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations,

on 14 November 2001, was a promising response to the anti-globalisation riots of the

1990s. But the WTO membership has failed to deliver the promised pro-development

changes. Finding "development" in the Doha Development Round today is like looking



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for a needle in a haystack. Developing countries have been completely sidelined by the

economic and political interests of global powers. According to the Guardian1, here are

10 examples of how the WTO has failed the poor:

1. Cotton: the Fair trade Foundation revealed last year how the $47bn in subsidies paid

to rich-country producers in the past 10 years has created barriers for the 15 million

cotton farmers across west Africa trying to trade their way out of poverty, and how 5

million of the world's poorest farming families have been forced out of business and into

deeper poverty because of those subsidies.

1 Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/nov/14/wto-

failsdeveloping-

countries retrieved on 28 May 2012.

University of the Western Cape Repository [email protected]

2. Agricultural subsidies: beyond cotton, WTO members have failed even to agree

how to reduce the huge subsidies paid to rich world farmers, whose overproduction

continues to threaten the livelihoods of developing world farmers.

3. Trade agreements: the WTO has also failed to clarify the deliberately ambiguous

rules on concluding trade agreements that allow the poorest countries to be

manipulated by the rich states. In Africa, in negotiations with the EU, countries have

been forced to eliminate tariffs on up to 90% of their trade because no clear rules exist

to protect them.

4. Special treatment: the rules for developing countries, called "special and

differential treatment" rules, were meant to be reviewed to make them more precise,

effective and operational. But the WTO has failed to work through the 88 proposals that



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would fill the legal vacuum.

5. Medicine: the poorest in developing countries are unable to access affordable

medicine because members have failed to clarify ambiguities between the need for

governments to protect public health on one hand and on the other to protect

the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies.

6. Legal costs: the WTO pledged to improve access to its expensive and complex legal

system, but has failed. In 15 years of dispute settlement under the WTO, 400 cases have

been initiated. No African country has acted as a complainant and only one least

developed country has ever filed a claim.

7. Protectionist economic policies: one of the WTO's five core functions agreed at

its inception in 1995 was to achieve more coherence in global economic policy-making.

Yet the WTO failed to curb the speedy increase in the number of protectionist

measures applied by G20 countries in response to the global economic crisis over the

past two years – despite G20 leaders' repeated affirmations of their "unwavering"

commitment to resist all forms of protectionist measures.

8. Natural disaster: the WTO fails to alleviate suffering when it has the opportunity

to do so. In the case of natural disaster, the membership will have taken almost two

years to agree and implement temporary trade concessions for Pakistan, where severe

flooding displaced 20 million people in 2010 and caused $10bn of damage. Those

measures, according to the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable

Development, would have boosted Pakistan's exports to the EU by at least €100m this

year.

9. Decision-making: the WTO makes most of its decisions by consensus – and



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achieving consensus between 153 countries is nearly impossible. But this shows another

University failure of the WTO: to break the link between market size and political weight that

would give small and poor countries a voice in the trade negotiations.

10. Fair trade: 10 years after the start of the Doha Development Round, governments

have failed to make trade fair. As long as small and poor countries remain without a

voice, the role of campaigning organisations, such as Traidcraft and Fairtrade

Foundation, which are working together to eliminate cotton subsidies, will remain critical.

Tariffs: more bindings and closer to zero

The bulkiest results of Uruguay Round are the 22,500 pages listing individual countries‘

commitments on specific categories of goods and services. These include commitments

to cut and ―bind‖ their customs duty rates on imports of goods. In some

cases, tariffs are being cut to zero. There is also a significant increase in the number of

―bound‖ tariffs — duty rates that are committed in the WTO and are difficult to raise.

ON THE WEBSITE:

www.wto.org > trade topics > goods > goods schedules

www.wto.org > trade topics > services > services schedules

Tariff cuts

Developed countries‘ tariff cuts were for the most part phased in over five years

from 1 January 1995. The result is a 40% cut in their tariffs on industrial products,

from an average of 6.3% to 3.8%. The value of imported industrial products that

receive duty-free treatment in developed countries will jump from 20% to 44%.



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There will also be fewer products charged high duty rates. The proportion of

imports into developed countries from all sources facing tariffs rates of more than

15% will decline from 7% to 5%. The proportion of developing country exports facing

tariffs above 15% in industrial countries will fall from 9% to 5%.

The Uruguay Round package has been improved. On 26 March 1997, 40 countries

accounting for more than 92% of world trade in information technology products,

agreed to eliminate import duties and other charges on these products by 2000 (by 2005

in a handful of cases). As with other tariff commitments, each participating country is

applying its commitments equally to exports from all WTO members (i.e. on a mostfavoured-

nation basis), even from members that did not make commitments.

What is this agreement called? There is no legally binding agreement

that sets out the targets for tariff reductions (e.g. by what percentage they were

to be cut as a result of the Uruguay Round).

Instead, individual countries listed their commitments in schedules annexed to Marrakesh

Protocol

to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. This is the legally binding agreement for

the

reduced tariff rates. Since then, additional commitments were made under the 1997 Information

Technology Agreement.

Anti-dumping, subsidies, safeguards: contingencies, etc

Binding tariffs, and applying them equally to all trading partners (most-favourednation



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treatment, or MFN) are key to the smooth flow of trade in goods. The WTO

agreements uphold the principles, but they also allow exceptions — in some circumstances.

Three of these issues are:

• actions taken against dumping (selling at an unfairly low price)

• subsidies and special ―countervailing‖ duties to offset the subsidies

• emergency measures to limit imports temporarily, designed to ―safeguard‖

domestic industries.

Anti-dumping actions

If a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges

on its own home market, it is said to be ―dumping‖ the product. Is this unfair

competition? Opinions differ, but many governments take action against dumping

in order to defend their domestic industries. The WTO agreement does not

pass judgement. Its focus is on how governments can or cannot react

to dumping — it disciplines anti-dumping actions, and it is often called the ―Anti-

Dumping Agreement‖. (This focus only on the reaction to dumping contrasts with

the approach of the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement.)

The legal definitions are more precise, but broadly speaking the WTO agreement

allows governments to act against dumping where there is genuine (―material‖)

injury to the competing domestic industry. In order to do that the government has

to be able to show that dumping is taking place, calculate the extent of dumping

(how much lower the export price is compared to the exporter‘s home market price),

and show that the dumping is causing injury or threatening to do so.

GATT (Article 6) allows countries to take action against dumping. The Anti-



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Dumping Agreement clarifies and expands Article 6, and the two operate together.

They allow countries to act in a way that would normally break the GATT principles

of binding a tariff and not discriminating between trading partners — typically antidumping

action means charging extra import duty on the particular product from

the particular exporting country in order to bring its price closer to the ―normal

value‖ or to remove the injury to domestic industry in the importing country.

There are many different ways of calculating whether a particular product is being

dumped heavily or only lightly. The agreement narrows down the range of possible

options. It provides three methods to calculate a product‘s ―normal value‖. The main

one is based on the price in the exporter‘s domestic market. When this cannot be used,

two alternatives are available — the price charged by the exporter in another country,

or a calculation based on the combination of the exporter‘s production costs, other

expenses and normal profit margins. And the agreement also specifies how a fair comparison

can be made between the export price and what would be a normal price.

Calculating the extent of dumping on a product is not enough. Anti-dumping measures

can only be applied if the dumping is hurting the industry in the importing country.

Therefore, a detailed investigation has to be conducted according to specified rules

first. The investigation must evaluate all relevant economic factors that have a bearing

on the state of the industry in question. If the investigation shows dumping is taking

place and domestic industry is being hurt, the exporting company can undertake to Detailed

procedures are set out on how anti-dumping cases are to be initiated, how

the investigations are to be conducted, and the conditions for ensuring that all interested

parties are given an opportunity to present evidence. Anti-dumping measures



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must expire five years after the date of imposition, unless an investigation shows

that ending the measure would lead to injury.

Anti-dumping investigations are to end immediately in cases where the authorities

determine that the margin of dumping is insignificantly small (defined as less than

2% of the export price of the product). Other conditions are also set. For example,

the investigations also have to end if the volume of dumped imports is negligible

(i.e. if the volume from one country is less than 3% of total imports of that product

— although investigations can proceed if several countries, each supplying less than

3% of the imports, together account for 7% or more of total imports).

The agreement says member countries must inform the Committee on Anti-

Dumping Practices about all preliminary and final anti-dumping actions, promptly

and in detail. They must also report on all investigations twice a year. When differences

arise, members are encouraged to consult each other. They can also use the

WTO‘s dispute settlement procedure.

Trade policy reviews: ensuring transparency

Individuals and companies involved in trade have to know as much as possible

about the conditions of trade. It is therefore fundamentally important

that regulations and policies are transparent. In the WTO, this is achieved

in two ways: governments have to inform the WTO and fellow-members of

specific measures, policies or laws through regular ―notifications‖; and the WTO



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conducts regular reviews of individual countries‘ trade policies — the trade policy

reviews. These reviews are part of the Uruguay Round agreement, but they began

several years before the round ended — they were an early result of the negotiations.

Participants agreed to set up the reviews at the December 1988 ministerial meeting

that was intended to be the midway assessment of the Uruguay Round. The first

review took place the following year. Initially they operated under GATT and, like

GATT, they focused on goods trade. With the creation of the WTO in 1995, their

scope was extended, like the WTO, to include services and intellectual property.

The importance countries attach to the process is reflected in the seniority of the

Trade Policy Review Body — it is the WTO General Council in another guise.

The objectives are:

• to increase the transparency and understanding of countries‘ trade policies and

practices, through regular monitoring

• improve the quality of public and intergovernmental debate on the issues

• to enable a multilateral assessment of the effects of policies on the world trading

system.

The reviews focus on members‘ own trade policies and practices. But they also take

into account the countries‘ wider economic and developmental needs, their policies

and objectives, and the external economic environment that they face. These ―peer

reviews‖ by other WTO members encourage governments to follow more closely the

WTO rules and disciplines and to fulfil their commitments. In practice the reviews

have two broad results: they enable outsiders to understand a country‘s policies and

circumstances, and they provide feedback to the reviewed country on its performance



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in the system.

Over a period of time, all WTO members are to come under scrutiny. The frequency

of the reviews depends on the country‘s size:

• The four biggest traders — the European Union, the United States, Japan and

China — are examined approximately once every two years.

• The next 16 countries (in terms of their share of world trade) are reviewed every

four years.

• The remaining countries are reviewed every six years, with the possibility of a

longer interim period for the least-developed countries.

For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the

government under review, and a detailed report written independently by

the WTO Secretariat. These two reports, together with the proceedings

of the Trade Policy Review Body‘s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

SETTLING DISPUTES

The priority is to settle disputes, not to pass judgement



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1. A unique contribution

Dispute settlement is the central pillar of the multilateral trading system, and

the WTO‘s unique contribution to the stability of the global economy. Without

a means of settling disputes, the rules-based system would be less effective

because the rules could not be enforced. The WTO‘s procedure underscores the rule

of law, and it makes the trading system more secure and predictable. The system is

based on clearly-defined rules, with timetables for completing a case. First rulings

are made by a panel and endorsed (or rejected) by the WTO‘s full membership.

Appeals based on points of law are possible.

However, the point is not to pass judgement. The priority is to settle disputes, through

consultations if possible. By January 2008, only about 136 of the 369 cases had reached

the full panel process. Most of the rest have either been notified as settled ―out of

court‖ or remain in a prolonged consultation phase — some since 1995.

Principles: equitable, fast, effective, mutually acceptable

Disputes in the WTO are essentially about broken promises. WTO members have

agreed that if they believe fellow-members are violating trade rules, they will use the

multilateral system of settling disputes instead of taking action unilaterally. That

means abiding by the agreed procedures, and respecting judgements.

A dispute arises when one country adopts a trade policy measure or takes some

action that one or more fellow-WTO members considers to be breaking the WTO

agreements, or to be a failure to live up to obligations. A third group of countries

can declare that they have an interest in the case and enjoy some rights.

A procedure for settling disputes existed under the old GATT, but it had no fixed



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timetables, rulings were easier to block, and many cases dragged on for a long time

inconclusively. The Uruguay Round agreement introduced a more structured

process with more clearly defined stages in the procedure. It introduced greater discipline

for the length of time a case should take to be settled, with flexible deadlines

set in various stages of the procedure. The agreement emphasizes that prompt settlement

is essential if the WTO is to function effectively. It sets out in considerable

detail the procedures and the timetable to be followed in resolving disputes. If a case

runs its full course to a first ruling, it should not normally take more than about one

year — 15 months if the case is appealed. The agreed time limits are flexible, and if

the case is considered urgent (e.g. if perishable goods are involved), it is accelerated

as much as possible.

The Uruguay Round agreement also made it impossible for the country losing a

case to block the adoption of the ruling. Under the previous GATT procedure, rulings

could only be adopted by consensus, meaning that a single objection could

block the ruling. Now, rulings are automatically adopted unless there is a consensus

to reject a ruling — any country wanting to block a ruling has to persuade all other

WTO members (including its adversary in the case) to share its view.

Although much of the procedure does resemble a court or tribunal, the preferred

solution is for the countries concerned to discuss their problems and settle the dispute

by themselves. The first stage is therefore consultations between the governments

concerned, and even when the case has progressed to other stages, consultation

and mediation are still always possible.



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How are disputes settled?

Settling disputes is the responsibility of the Dispute Settlement Body (the General

Council in another guise), which consists of all WTO members. The Dispute

Settlement Body has the sole authority to establish ―panels‖ of experts to consider

the case, and to accept or reject the panels‘ findings or the results of an appeal. It

monitors the implementation of the rulings and recommendations, and has the

power to authorize retaliation when a country does not comply with a ruling.

• First stage: consultation (up to 60 days). Before taking any other actions the countries

in dispute have to talk to each other to see if they can settle their differences

by themselves. If that fails, they can also ask the WTO director-general to mediate

or try to help in any other way.

• Second stage: the panel (up to 45 days for a panel to be appointed, plus 6 months

for the panel to conclude). If consultations fail, the complaining country can ask

for a panel to be appointed. The country ―in the dock‖ can block the creation of a

panel once, but when the Dispute Settlement Body meets for a second time, the

appointment can no longer be blocked (unless there is a consensus against appointing

the panel).

Officially, the panel is helping the Dispute Settlement Body make rulings or recommendations.

But because the panel‘s report can only be rejected by consensus in

the Dispute Settlement Body, its conclusions are difficult to overturn. The panel‘s

findings have to be based on the agreements cited.

The panel‘s final report should normally be given to the parties to the dispute within

six months. In cases of urgency, including those concerning perishable goods,



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the deadline is shortened to three months.

The agreement describes in some detail how the panels are to work. The main

stages are:

• Before the first hearing:

each side in the dispute presents its case in writing to the

panel.

• First hearing: the case for the complaining country and defence:

the complaining

country (or countries), the responding country, and those that have announced

they have an interest in the dispute, make their case at the panel‘s first hearing.

• Rebuttals:

the countries involved submit written rebuttals and present oral arguments

at the panel‘s second meeting.

• Experts:

if one side raises scientific or other technical matters, the panel may consult

experts or appoint an expert review group to prepare an advisory report.

• First draft:

the panel submits the descriptive (factual and argument) sections of

its report to the two sides, giving them two weeks to comment. This report does

not include findings and conclusions.

• Interim report:



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The panel then submits an interim report, including its findings

and conclusions, to the two sides, giving them one week to ask for a review.

• Review: The period of review must not exceed two weeks. During that time, the

panel may hold additional meetings with the two sides.

• Final report:

A final report is submitted to the two sides and three weeks later, it

is circulated to all WTO members. If the panel decides that the disputed trade

measure does break a WTO agreement or an obligation, it recommends that the

measure be made to conform with WTO rules. The panel may suggest how this

could be done.

• The report becomes a ruling:

The report becomes the Dis pute Settlement Body‘s

ruling or recommendation within 60 days unless a consensus rejects it. Both sides

can appeal the report (and in some cases both sides do).

Appeals

Either side can appeal a panel‘s ruling. Sometimes both sides do so. Appeals have to

be based on points of law such as legal interpretation — they cannot reexamine

existing evidence or examine new issues.

Each appeal is heard by three members of a permanent seven-member Appellate

Body set up by the Dispute Settlement Body and broadly representing the range of

WTO membership. Members of the Appellate Body have four-year terms. They have

to be individuals with recognized standing in the field of law and international

trade, not affiliated with any government.



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The appeal can uphold, modify or r everse the panel‘s legal findings and conclusions.

Normally appeals should not last more than 60 days, with an absolute maximum of

90 days.

The Dispute Settlement Body has to accept or reject the appeals report within 30 days

— and rejection is only possible by consensus.

Case study: the timetable in practice

On 23 January 1995, Venezuela complained to the Dispute Settlement Body that the

United States was applying rules that discriminated against gasoline imports, and

formally requested consultations with the United States. Just over a year later (on

29 January 1996) the dispute panel completed its final report. (By then, Brazil had

joined the case, lodging its own complaint in April 1996. The same panel considered

both complaints.) The United States appealed. The Appellate Body completed its

report, and the Dispute Settlement Body adopted the report on 20 May 1996, one

year and four months after the complaint was first lodged.

The United States and Venezuela then took six and a half months to agree on what

the United States should do. The agreed period for implementing the solution was

15 months from the date the appeal was concluded (20 May 1996 to 20 August 1997).

The case arose because the United States applied stricter rules on the chemical characteristics

of imported gasoline than it did for domestically-refined gasoline.

Venezuela (and later Brazil) said this was unfair because US gasoline did not have to

meet the same standards — it violated the ―national treatment‖ principle and could



25

not be justified under exceptions to normal WTO rules for health and environmental

conservation measures. The dispute panel agreed with Venezuela and Brazil. The

appeal report upheld the panel‘s conclusions (making some changes to

the panel‘s legal interpretation). The United States agreed with Venezuela

that it would amend its regulations within 15 months and on 26 August

1997 it reported to the Dispute Settlement Body that a new regulation had

been signed on 19 August.

Special policies

The WTO‘s main functions are to do with trade negotiations and the enforcement

of negotiated multilateral trade rules (including dispute settlement). Special focus is

given to four particular policies supporting these functions:

• Assisting developing and transition economies

• Specialized help for export promotion

• Cooperation in global economic policy-making

• Routine notification when members introduce new trade measures or alter old ones.

Assisting developing and transition economies

Developing countries make up about three quarters of the total WTO membership.

Together with countries currently in the process of ―transition‖ to market-based

Economies, they play an increasingly important role in the WTO.

Therefore, much attention is paid to the special needs and problems of developing

And transition economies. The WTO Secretariat‘s Training and Technical Cooperation

Institute organizes a number of programmes to explain how the system works and



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To help train government officials and negotiators. Some of the events are in Geneva,

Others are held in the countries concerned. A number of the programmes are organized

Jointly with other international organizations. Some take the form of training

Courses. In other cases individual assistance might be offered.

The subjects can be anything from help in dealing with negotiations to join the

WTO and implementing WTO commitments to guidance in participating effectively

in multilateral negotiations. Developing countries, especially the least-developed

among them, are helped with trade and tariff data relating to their own export interests

and to their participation in WTO bodies.

Specialized help for exporting: the International Trade Centre

The International Trade Centre was established by GATT in 1964 at the request of

the developing countries to help them promote their exports. It is jointly operated

by the WTO and the United Nations, the latter acting through UNCTAD (the UN

Conference on Trade and Development).

The centre responds to requests from developing countries for assistance in formulating

and implementing export promotion programmes as well as import operations

and techniques. It provides information and advice on export markets and

marketing techniques. It assists in establishing export promotion and marketing

services, and in training personnel required for these services. The centre‘s help is

freely available to the least-developed countries.

The WTO in global economic policy-making

An important aspect of the WTO‘s mandate is to cooperate with the International

Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other multilateral institutions to achieve



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greater coherence in global economic policy-making. A separate Ministerial

Declaration was adopted at the Marrakesh Ministerial Meeting in April 1994 to

underscore this objective.

The declaration envisages an increased contribution by the WTO to achieving

greater coherence in global economic policy-making. It recognizes that different

aspects of economic policy are linked, and it calls on the WTO to develop its cooperation

with the international organizations responsible for monetary and financial

matters — the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The declaration also recognizes the contribution that trade liberalization makes to

the growth and development of national economies. It says this is an increasingly

important component in the success of the economic adjustment programmes

which many WTO members are undertaking, even though it may often involve significant

social costs during the transition.

Transparency (1): keeping the WTO informed

Often the only way to monitor whether commitments are being implemented fully

is by requiring countries to notify the WTO promptly when they take relevant

actions. Many WTO agreements say member governments have to notify the WTO

Secretariat of new or modified trade measures. For example, details of any new antidumping

or countervailing legislation, new technical standards affecting trade,

changes to regulations affecting trade in services, and laws or regulations concerning

the intellectual property agreement — they all have to be notified to the appropriate

body of the WTO. Special groups are also established to examine new freetrade

arrangements and the trade policies of countries joining as new members.



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Transparency (2): keeping the public informed

The main public access to the WTO is the website, www.wto.org. News of the latest

developments are published daily. Background information and explanations of a wide

range of issues — including ―Understanding the WTO‖ — are also available. And

those wanting to follow the nitty-gritty of WTO work can consult or download an everincreasing

number of official documents, now over 150,000, in Documents Online.

On 14 May 2002, the General Council decided to make more documents available

to the public as soon as they are circulated. It also decided that the minority of documents

that are restricted should be made public more quickly — after about two

months, instead of the previous six. This was the second major decision on transparency.

On 18 July 1996, the General Council had agreed to make more information

about WTO activities available publicly and decided that public information,

including derestricted WTO documents, would be accessible on-line.

The objective is to make more information available to the public. An important

channel is through the media, with regular briefings on all major meetings for journalists

in Geneva — and increasingly by email and other means for journalists

around the world.

Meanwhile, over the years, the WTO Secretariat has enhanced its dialogue with civil

society — non-governmental organizations (NGOs) interested in the WTO, parliamentarians,

students, academics, and other groups.

In the run-up to the Doha Ministerial Conference in 2001, WTO members proposed

and agreed on several new activities involving NGOs. In 2002, the WTO

Secretariat increased the number of briefings for NGOs on all major WTO meetings



29

and began listing the briefing schedules on its website. NGOs are also regularly

invited to the WTO to present their recent policy research and analysis directly to

member governments.

A monthly list of NGO position papers received by the Secretariat is compiled and circulated

for the information of member governments. A monthly electronic news bulletin

is also available to NGOs, enabling access to publicly available WTO information

Conclusion

The WTO has failed to live up to its promises over the past decade, which reveals a wider

systemic problem in the global community. True and lasting solutions to global

economic problems can only come when the model of global competitiveness between

countries becomes one of genuine cooperation.

However, the journey so far in redeeming the development promise of Doha has been

full of broken promises and missed deadlines, including the July 2005 deadline and

beyond. This setback follows on the heels of the important breakthrough in the

negotiations attained in the July 2004 package with regard to development issues. The

lack of substantive movement is evident in almost all areas of development matters,

including that concerning special and differential treatment, implementation, specific

trade-related needs and concerns of developing countries, and, to a lesser extent,

technical assistance. Will mainstreaming development into the WTO and the MTS be a

myth or a fact that can be realised to meet the expectations of developing countries? Can

the development promise of Doha, which is timely and crucial and deserves to be fully

redeemed, be translated into concrete steps in the period leading to the coming 6th WTO



Ministerial Conference and beyond? This paper attempts to answer some of these

important and pressing questions in the context of developing countries.