International Trade Law - Essay Example

Running Head: International Trade Law Assignment International Trade Law Assignment s International Trade Law Assignment The World Trade Organization is an international organization dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. It was created as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations between 1986 and 1994. There are currently 150 members of the WTO with many more nations currently negotiating for membership. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the primary objective of the WTO is to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the worlds trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. At the apex is the Ministerial Conference, with many types of councils, committees and specialized working groups working toward the goal of helping producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. The WTO manages its primary objective of helping trade between nations by: administering trade agreements, acting as a forum for trade negotiations, settling trade disputes, reviewing national trade policies, and by assisting developing countries in trade policy issues through technical assistance and training programs and cooperating with other international organizations. With over 150 members, each representing diverse economic and cultural background, the desire is not to create a trading system. The WTO manages to do this through consensus. Trade agreements are a result of negotiations between member nations must be ratified by members parliaments. These agreements clearly outline the rights and obligations and ensure a smooth and fair trading system. Through these agreements, the WTO helps decrease trade barriers. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) was formed after the secound world war in 1947. It was singed by 23 countries. This purpose of GATT was to dismantle the high protectionist barriers that were then in existence and had incresed since the war (Gillingham 2002). The main objectives of GATT included the elimination of quotas, the gradual reduction of tariffs, the elimination of non-tariff trade barriers and equality between member countries. GATT was mostly numerous series of negotiations rounds. These mainly focused on the reduction of tariffs. Here the GATT was very successful, in only eight negotiation rounds it was able to reduce tariffs from 40% to below 4%. The later negotiations focused also on anti-dumping and non-tariff measures. The negotiations round in Punta del Este in Uruguay 1986 was to become the starting block for The World Trade Organisation (WTO), it later became known as the Uruguay round. These negotiations however lasted between 1986 to 1994. Until it was officially announced on January the 1st 1995 the founding of the WTO, with its headquarters in Geneva (Nielson, Taglioni 2003). In the beginning of the WTO, there were 123 member countries, and a long list of potential candidates wanting to enter. There were also new challenges to overcome. The main changes between the GATT and WTO were the shift towards a more judicalized, legally binding dispute settlement system (Barfield 2002 ). The WTO would also oversee new agreements on agriculture, services, trade related intellectual property rights, technical barriers to trade, and the phasing out quotas for texties and clouthing. The GATT aggreement was an international agreemant defining the rules of international trade as well as a global body that supported the agreement. The WTO has taken over this role as a global body that supports the agreement, and GATTs rules have been modified and incorporated into the WTO. The WTO is permanent, while GATT was provisional, and member countries have formally accepted the agreements of the WTO. Singapore round Ministerial Conference in Singapore from 9 to 13 December 1996. The Conference was the first since the WTO entered into force on 1 January 1995. It included plenary meetings and various multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral business sessions. These examined issues related to the work of the WTOs first two years of activity and the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements. Aswell as the Singapore issues which include investment rules,competition, government procurement and trade facilitations (WTO 2003). The Doha Declaration The 1999 Seattle Ministerial Conference had failed to launch a round of global negotiations for setting new trade rules. This had raised questions as to the viability of an organisation such as the WTO which responsibilities included overseeing the global sytem with all the countries as players and so many issues. The fact that all decisions in the organization are taken on the basis of consensus led to doubts about the WTOs efficiency. The Fourth (the previous were held in; Singapore in 1996, Geneva 1998, Seatle 1999) WTO Ministerial Conference which was held in Doha, Qatar, from 9 to 14 November 2001, was however seen as a meeting that put peoples faith back into the system and the WTO. This Conference later became known as the Doha conference or the Doha declaration. The November 2001 declaration Conference in Doha provided the mandate for negotiations on a range of subjects, and other work including issues concerning the implementation of present agreements. The Declaration included twenty-one subjects and attaining paragraphs. The Doha Declaration covers the following main areas, the main Doha Declaration, negotiations and other work, the decisions on implementation and resulting work. Some of the main topics within the main Doha Declaration included negotiations on agriculture and services. All but two of the agriculture negotioations should be completed by 2005, according to a general concensus reached in 2000. Paragraph five of the declaration is related to Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS). The main purpose of the TRIPS is to proctect public health and to promote access to medicines for all (Adamson 2003). The Cancun Round The Doha Declaration was to play a key role in the following Ministerial Conference. The fith Ministerial Conference was held in Cancun, Mexico, during the week of September 10th 2003. The main task of the Cancun meeting was to take stock of progress in negotiations and other work under the Doha Development Agenda. There were large concerns voiced, about the outcome of the Cancun round. Many experts saw a failure as a disaster. A failure would mean a posible end to the Doha Development Agenda, the WTO would take a server blow, and above all a severe blow to world trade (Zedillo 2003). There where big issuse that had to be taken up for disscussion and some agreement had to be reached over them before the meeting could go ahead and agree on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). These issuses where part of the (DDA), such as the agriculture subsides and the Singapore issuses (Edmonson 2003). Their fears where to turn into reallity. The scene was that of "David and Golliate". Or rather the developing countries against the developed countries, on differences between further trade liberalisation, this division within the negotiations was the last thing that the WTO. The big and interesting difference at the Cancun round was the group of 22 (G-22) developing countries led by Brazil, India and China, that for the first time was organized and united. Bounded together to to fight against the rich countries farm subsidisation (King, Miller 2003). G-22 where able to stand up against the big three Japan, USA, EU and try to pressure them into dramatically cutting their farm subsidies. The EU aggreed to lowering their farm subsidies , but then the G-22 would have to aggree to the Singapore issues which they refused to do (King, Miller 2003). Since they could not reache an aggreement. The meeting was cut short and seen as a failure by many. The WTO and its future "The future of trade issues of potential benefit to developing countries such as market-opening in manufactured products, services and agriculture, are uncertain because of lack of agreement at Cancun (Panitchpakdi 2003). The news of the collaps of the Cancun meeting spread throught out the world as delegates returned home from the meeting. There was widesspread uncertainty of the future of the WTO, and a great question on the future of the international negotiation organisation. The negotiations had collapsed, and there was a loom of failure in the air. This however was not devestating news for everyone. Numerous delegates from Non-governmental Organisations (NGOS) were pleased by the collapse of the fith Ministerial meeting. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said the Doha Round was "in intensive care" after what he called "not only a severe blow for the WTO but also a lost opportunity for developed and developing countries alike." Untimetley The real casualties of the failed Cancun meeting would be the poor and developing countries (Evans 2003). So what does the future hold for the WTO? Well, an organisation that relies on all decision making, needing a concencus of all members, will encounter numerous difficulties. Every delegate has their own agenda that they bring to the meeting. And for all delegates to coinside is extremely difficult. This form of negotiations may have to change in the future. As a result of this the formations of groups and alliances are being formed withing the WTO. i.e. G-22. The interesting aspect here is that, G-22 members saw the negotiations as a triumph, because they stod up againts the big players i.e. The US and The EU. They did not bukkle under their pressure. The US and The EU saw the breakdown as a failure however, because they did not convicince the rest of the members that their way to realise the Doha aggrement, was the best way for all delegation (CNN 2003). This division between the developed and the developing countries, may in the future result in that these alliences break away from the WTO and form there own organisation. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick left little doubt that Washington would now focus on getting regional and bilateral trade pacts outside the WTO framework -- arrangements in which it is easier for big powers to impose their will on weaker ones (Evans 2003). This is a very real possibility now that faith in the WTO is so low. "If we are to preserve what we have already achieved, build on these achievements and resuscitate these negotiations, ministers will have to intensify their efforts at finding solutions to the problems they could not overcome in Cancun." (Panitchpakdi 2003). We feel that this is an essential aspect that needs to be the core beliefes of all the members of the WTO in order for it to move forward. Blaming each other and just giving up on the WTO will result in gloomy future for the World, Free Trade and developing countries. The world must take a deep breath, and continue negotiations and learn from the mistakes that were made at Cancun. The expactations that The Doha aggrement would be complet in 2005 is not longer a possibility. If there is to be a continuation of this Aggreement then the deadline must be postponed into the future. A different approch to the organisation of the meetings must be evaluated, in order to shine light on an ever-darkening situation. Conclusion What we have learned from our research is that the future of the WTO is very uncertain at the moment. We believe that there are underlying aspects in the WTO that make it very difficult to make progress. One being that there needs to be a general concensus in order to reach a decision. However instead of playing the blameing game, of who caused the collapse of the meeting. Energy needs to be put into learning form these mistakes and contributing to reaching an agreement. The US and the EU need to show leadership and show that they are giving way. The poor countries need evidence that that they can benefit from a trading system. Otherwise they will be againts any proposal that the US and EU put forward. References Adamson, Toby. 2003. The Doha Declaration. [Online]. Available from URL:< http://www.oxfamamerica.org/advocacy/art5389.html>. [Accessed 2003 September 21]. Barfield, Claude. " WTO dispute settlement system in need of change". Intereconomics, 37 (3): 131-135. CNN. 2003. Rich-poor divide derails WTO talks. [Online]. Available from URL:< http://www.cnn.worldnews.printthis.clickability.com.html>. [Accessed 2003 September 22]. Edmonson, R.G. 2003. "Next stop: Cancun". Journal of Commerce, (May 19): 1. Evans, Robert. WTO future hangs in the balance. [Online]. Available from URL:< http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030915/80/e8hj0.html>. [Accessed 2003 September 23]. Gillingham, Mike. 2002. "Governing world Trade". Supply Management, 7 (13): 39. King, Neil and Scott Miller. "Trade Talls Fail Amid Big Divide Over Farm Issues; Developing Countries Object to U.S Goals; Cotton as a Rallying Cry". Wall Street Journal, ( September 15): A1. Nielson, Julia and Daria Taglioni. 2003. "A rough guide to great trade negotiating venues of the world". Organisation for economic Cooperation and Development, (238): 24. Panitchpakdi, Supachai. 2003. "Cancun:The real Losers are the poor". International Herald Tribun, (September 18): 3 WTO. 2003. The first WTO Ministerial Conference. [Online]. Available from URL:< http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min96_e/min96_e.htm>. [Accessed 2003 September 24]. Zedillo, Ernesto. 2003. "Will the Doha Round Implode in 2003?". Forbes, 171 (03): 29. Read More