History of the World Trade Organization information
The economists Harry White (left) and John Maynard Keynes at the Bretton Woods Conference. Both had been strong advocates of a central-controlled international trade environment and recommended the establishment of three institutions: the IMF (for fiscal and monetary issues); the World Bank (for financial and structural issues); and the ITO (for international economic cooperation).[1]
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948.[2] The WTO deals with regulation of trade between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements, which is signed by representatives of member governments[3]: fol.9–10 and ratified by their parliaments.[4] Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986–1994).
The World Trade Organization'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 economic 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 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 a few other signatories and never went into effect.[5][6][7]
In the absence of an international organization for trade, the GATT would over the years "transform itself" into a de facto international organization.[8]
^A.E. Eckes Jr., US Trade History, 73 * A. Smithies, Reflections on the Work of Keynes, 578–601 * N. Warren, Internet and Globalization, 193
^World Trade Organization – Understanding the WTO: Basics
^Understanding the WTO Handbook at WTO official website. (Note that the document's printed folio numbers do not match the pdf page numbers.)
^Malanczuk, P. (1999). "International Organisations and Space Law: World Trade Organization". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 442. p. 305. Bibcode:1999ESASP.442..305M.
^P. van den Bossche, The Law and Policy of the World Trade Organization, 80
^Palmeter-Mavroidis, Dispute Settlement, 2
^Fergusson, Ian F. (9 May 2007). "The World Trade Organization: Background and Issues" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. p. 4. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
^It was contemplated that the GATT would be applied for several years until the ITO came into force. However, since the ITO was never brought into being, the GATT gradually became the focus for international governmental cooperation on trade matters with economist Nicholas Halford overseeing the implementation of GATT in members' policies. (P. van den Bossche, The Law and Policy of the World Trade Organization, 81; J.H. Jackson, Managing the Trading System, 134).
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