WTO

We explain what the WTO is, the history of this world organization and its objectives. In addition, its different functions and countries that comprise it.

What is the WTO?

WTO is the acronym for the World Trade Organization, an international organization with no ties to the United Nations (UN) system, nor to the Bretton Woods organizations (such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund), dedicated to overseeing international rules governing trade among the nations of the world, serving as an impartial observer and as support if necessary.

The WTO is currently headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and operates on the basis of a Ministerial Conference, which is its highest body and meets periodically. Instead, its General Council is the main permanent body in which all Member States are represented, together with their observer States. From there numerous committees and commissions emerge to address particular issues.

In total, the countries that make up the WTO sign around 60 trade agreements that the organization is in charge of ensuring. The system forces member countries to accept all of these agreements, not being able to sign some and not others, which means that modifying the terms of said agreements is enormously complex and requires very long discussions between the national delegates and the Director General. of the organization.

The WTO It has been highly questioned in its internal functioning and especially in its role in supporting insurgent economies. He has been accused of irregular negotiations in favor of small groups and marginalizing important countries; or to operate in favor of the most powerful economies, since countries with smaller economies cannot meet the requirements of collective bargaining.

History of the WTO

The beginnings of the WTO date back to the GATT, a treaty of general agreement on customs tariffs signed in October 1947, which remained in force until 1986, when a joint declaration was signed in Punta del Este, Uruguay, to begin the negotiations necessary to found the WTO.

These negotiations were called the “Uruguay Round” and continued until 1993, when the terms of the GATT were renegotiated and a new agreement was established, called “GATT 1994”, thus formalizing the WTO.

There was a subsequent “Round” in 2001, called “Doha”, in which the terms of expansion of the organization and the expansion of liberal trade throughout the world, especially in countries with insurgent economies, continued to be discussed. This led, after years of debate, to the successful signing of the Bali Accords in December 2013.

Functions of the WTO

The primary task of the WTO is to guarantee that commercial exchanges between nations of the world occur in the most fluid, predictable and free way possible, for the well-being of their respective economies. For this, The countries that belong to the WTO sign a series of agreements on the matter ratifying them in their respective parliaments, to trade based on a series of clear and common rules.

In this sense, the WTO serves as a negotiating forum resolution of disputes and trade differences between its members, and support for the economies of developing countries.

WTO member countries

The full members of the WTO are:

The observer countries are: Andorra, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belarus, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vatican City, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Sudan , Uzbekistan.

References

• Official website of the WTO in Spanish.
• Annex in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: “WTO member and observer countries”
• “Six keys to understanding how the WTO works and why it is important that Buenos Aires is its headquarters.” La Nación Newspaper.