The organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing artisan’s adherence to WTFO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTFO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986-1994). There are a number of ways of looking at the World Trade Organization. It is an organization for trade opening.
It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. Essentially, the WTFO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with ACH other. Who is WTFO The WTFO was born out of negotiations, and everything the WTFO does is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the Wet’s current work comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATE).
The WTFO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the ‘Doth Development Agenda’ launched in rehire countries have faced trade barriers and wanted them lowered, the negotiations have helped to open markets for trade. But the WTFO is not just about opening markets, and in some circumstances its rules support maintaining read barriers for example, to protect consumers or prevent the spread of disease. At its heart are the WTFO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations. These documents provide the legal ground rules for international commerce.
They are essentially contracts, binding governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits. Although negotiated and signed by governments, the goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business, while allowing governments to meet social and environmental objectives. The system’s overriding purpose is to help trade flow as freely as possible ? so long as there are no undesirable side effects ? because this is important for economic development and well-being.
That partly means removing obstacles. It also means ensuring that individuals, companies and governments know what the trade rules are around the world, and giving them the confidence that there will be no sudden changes of policy. In other words, the rules have to be ‘transparent’ and predictable. What does WTFO do? The WTFO is run by its member governments. All major decisions are made by the membership as a whole, either by ministers (who usually meet at least once every two years) or by their ambassadors or delegates (who meet regularly in Geneva).
While the WTFO is driven by its member states, it could not function without its Secretariat to coordinate the activities. The Secretariat employs over 600 staff, and its experts lawyers, economists, statisticians and communications experts assist WTFO members on a daily basis to ensure, among other things, that negotiations progress smoothly, and that the rules of international trade are correctly applied and enforced. Trade negotiations The WTFO agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell out the principles of liberalizing, and the permitted exceptions.
They include individual countries’ commitments to lower customs tariffs and other trade barriers, and to open and keep open services markets. They set procedures for settling disputes. These agreements are not static; they are renegotiated from time to time and new agreements can be added to the package. Many are now being negotiated under the Doth Development Agenda, launched by WTFO trade ministers in Doth, Qatar, in November 2001. Implementation and monitoring WTFO agreements require governments to make their trade policies transparent by notifying the WTFO about laws in force and measures adopted.
Various WTFO councils and committees seek to ensure that these requirements are being followed and that WTFO agreements are being properly implemented. All WTFO members must undergo periodic scrutiny of their trade policies and practices, each review containing reports by the country concerned and the WTFO Secretariat. Dispute settlement The Wet’s procedure for resolving trade quarrels under the Dispute Settlement Understanding is vital for enforcing the rules and therefore for ensuring that read flows smoothly. Countries bring disputes to the WTFO if they think their rights under the agreements are being infringed.
Judgments by specially appointed independent experts are based on interpretations of the agreements and individual countries’ commitments. Building trade capacity WTFO agreements contain special provision for developing countries, including longer time periods to implement agreements and commitments, measures to increase their trading opportunities, and support to help them build their trade capacity, to handle disputes and to implement technical standards. The WTFO organizes hundreds of technical cooperation missions to developing countries annually.
It also holds numerous courses each year in Geneva for government officials. Aid for Trade aims to help developing countries develop the skills and infrastructure needed to expand their trade. Outreach The WTFO maintains regular dialogue with non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians, other international organizations, the media and the general public on various aspects of the WTFO and the ongoing Doth negotiations, with the aim of enhancing cooperation and increasing awareness of WTFO activities What does WTFO stand for?
The WTFO agreements are lengthy and complex because they are legal texts covering a wide range of activities. But a number of simple, fundamental principles run throughout all of these documents. These principles are the foundation of the multilateral trading system. Non-discrimination A country should not discriminate between its trading partners and it should not discriminate between its own and foreign products, services or nationals.
More open Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious ways of encouraging trade; these barriers include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such as import NAS or quotas that restrict quantities selectively. Predictable and transparent Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be raised arbitrarily. With stability and predictability, investment is encouraged, jobs are created and consumers can fully enjoy the benefits of competition choice and lower prices.
More competitive Discouraging ‘unfair’ practices, such as export subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share; the issues are complex, and the rules try to establish what is fair or unfair, and how governments can respond, in particular y charging additional import duties calculated to compensate for damage caused by unfair trade. More beneficial for less developed countries Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges; over three-quarters of WTFO members are developing countries and countries in transition to market economies.
The WTFO agreements give them transition periods to adjust to the more unfamiliar and, perhaps, difficult WTFO provisions. Protect the environment The Wet’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health. However, these measures must be applied in the same way to both national and foreign businesses. In other words, members must not use environmental protection measures as a means of disguising protectionist policies.
The World Trade Organization the WTFO is the international organization whose primary purpose is to open trade for the benefit of all. The WTFO provides a forum for negotiating agreements aimed at reducing obstacles to international trade and ensuring a level playing field for all, thus contributing to economic growth and development. The WTFO also provides a legal and institutional ramekin for the implementation and monitoring of these agreements, as well as for settling disputes arising from their interpretation and application.
The current body of trade agreements comprising the WTFO consists of 16 different multilateral agreements (to which all WTFO members are parties) and two different bilateral agreements (to which only some WTFO members are parties). Over the past 60 years, the WTFO, which was established in 1995, and its predecessor organization the GATE have helped to create a strong and prosperous international trading system, thereby contributing to unprecedented lobar economic growth. The WTFO currently has 160 members, of which 117 are developing countries or separate customs territories.
WTFO activities are supported by a Secretariat of some 700 staff, led by the WTFO Director-General. The Secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland, and has an annual budget of approximately CHEF 200 million ($180 million, 130 million). The three official languages of the WTFO are English, French and Spanish. WTFO in Brief The result is assurance. Consumers and producers know that they can enjoy secure supplies and greater choice of the finished products, components, raw materials and services that they Use. Producers and exporters know that foreign arrests will remain open to them. The result is also a more prosperous, peaceful and accountable economic world.
Virtually all decisions in the WTFO are taken by consensus among all member countries and they are ratified by members’ parliaments. Trade friction is channeled into the Wet’s dispute settlement process where the focus is on interpreting agreements and commitments, and how to ensure that countries’ trade policies conform with them. That way, the risk of disputes spilling over into political or military conflict is reduced. By lowering trade barriers, the Wet’s system also breaks down other barriers teen peoples and nations. At the heart of the system known as the multilateral trading system are the Wet’s agreements, negotiated and signed by a large majority of the world’s trading nations, and ratified in their parliaments.
These agreements are the legal ground-rules for international commerce. Essentially, they are contracts, guaranteeing member countries important trade rights. They also bind governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits to everybody’s benefit. The agreements were negotiated and signed by governments. But their purpose is to help producers of goods and revise, exporters, and importers conduct their business. Understanding the WTFO Essentially, the WTFO is a place where member governments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. At its heart are the WTFO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations.
But the WTFO is not just about liberalizing trade, and in some circumstances its rules support maintaining trade barriers ? for example to protect consumers, prevent the spread of disease or protect the environment. WTFO Organization Chart : THE WTFO Now Controls Our Economy, Fate and Future’s World Trade Organization is a self serving and undemocratic organization that operates outside of our control. The U. S. Constitution states that all treaties made under the authority of the United States become supreme law of the land (Article VI). When our government stymied under pressure from foreign-represented lobbyists and signed the WTFO treaty our government effectively weakened our sovereignty.
Our laws, regulations and administrative procedures are now open to challenge. Since entering the WTFO in 2001, trade with China has resulted in the loss of 2. 8 million jobs through 2010, according to the most recent HYPERLINK. Those fortunate enough to retain their jobs witnessed their annual earnings decrease by roughly $1 ,400. American workers are put in direct competition with one another as more and more employers look to offshore production to nations with lower wage rates. Jobs losses have affected every sector of the economy in both white and blue- collar occupations.
Over that time we have lost: 909,400 jobs in computer and electronic products 178,700 jobs in apparel and accessories 04,300 jobs in administrative support services 173,1 00 jobs in professional, scientific and technical services These job losses can be directly attributed to China’s rapidly growing trade surplus with us maintained by the systematic manipulation of the Chinese Yuan.
By purposely undervaluing their currency, China subsidizes their exports – some estimates put this subsidy at nearly 30 percent. This practice has allowed America’s trade deficit with China to balloon since China entered into the WTFO. In 2001 , when China joined the WTFO, they held a small trade surplus of $84 billion with us. By 2010, hat number had grown exponentially to $278 billion, growing over $21 billion per year on average. With the U. S-China trade deficit exploding, more job losses are forecast in the future.
The Progressive Policy Institute claims that unless the trade deficit is brought under control, 12 million information-based jobs in the U. S. Are highly susceptible in the future. This can be seen today in what some are calling the jobless “recovery. ” Without jobs, there can be no recovery. Beyond the quantifiable numbers of economic hardship here in America, the WTFO is inherently wrong for other reasons. The organization remains indifferent to issues of workers rights, child labor and environmental protection standards. The organization has little to no transparency as all of its hearings are closed to the public. It is no wonder then that we lose nine out of every 10 trade disputes brought before the body.
The WTFO has come to represent the most efficient form of colonization the world has ever seen – reaping all the benefits with no downsides of occupation. The corporate agenda of the organization has destroyed the developing economies of the world, exploiting cheap resources ND giving them little in return. We must renegotiate terms or completely withdraw from the WTFO – immediately! The World Trade Organization (WTFO): America Can No Longer Live With It The WTFO is a biased undemocratic organization of 153 nations that limits America’s ability to act in its own best interest. In it, the United States has no larger vote than a smaller country, such as Grenade (Article IX, p. 5).
By signing the agreement with the World Trade Organization, the U. S. Congress agreed to concede a major portion of our sovereignty and USUrp our democratic legislative process, including: Conforming U. S. Laws, regulations and administrative procedures to the will of the WTFO (Article XVI, p. 10) Subjecting all federal, state and local laws and practices that affect trade to international review by the WTFO (Article XVI, p. 10) Allowing any WTFO member country to challenge federal, state and local laws and practices as trade impeding (Section 2 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding) Taking all trade disputes to the WTFO judiciary – giving the WTFO final jurisdiction over all trade altercations.
No appeal exists outside of the WTFO (Section 2 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding) Empowering the WTFO to enforce its rulings by imposing fines on the United States until we comply Disallowing Congress to change the agreement. The Rights of America are Subservient to the Will of the World Trade Organization. Those who Signed this Lengthy Agreement did not Read the Fine Print or did not have the Interests of America in Mind. America’s WTFO Agreement MUST Be Amended or Eliminated! Amending the agreement with the WTFO requires submitting a proposal to the Ministerial Conference. Once the amendment has been accepted, it should only take 90 days to render a consensus. (Article X, p. 10).
If the United States opts to outdraw, the President would be required to send a letter to both the Congress and the Director General of the WTFO and we would be free of any obligations to the WTFO in six months (Article XV, p. 10). Until then, per Article VI of the United States Constitution, our agreement with the World Trade Organizations “shall be the Supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby. “
