WTO Latest

Developments and how

far is it benefiting the
country
Team:
Sneha Chopra MMS Finance (06)
Pranav Anand PGDM Finance (03)
Abhishek Samanta PGDM - Marketing ()
Nihar Jajoo PGDM - Marketing ()

WTO - Basics
What is WTO?
Global international organization dealing with the rules of
trade between nations.
Goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters,
and importers conduct their business.

Formation of WTO

Formation: 1 Jan 1995

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
Membership: 160 member states
Director General: Roberto Azevendo
Website: www.wto.org

GATT
The Tokyo Round
The Tokyo Round during the seventies was the first major attempt to
tackle trade barriers that do not take the form of tariffs, and to improve
the system, adopting a series of agreements onnon-tariff barriers.
The Uruguay Round
The eighth GATT round known as the Uruguay Round was launched in
September 1986, inPunta del Este, Uruguay
It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed: the talks were
going to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in
services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of
agriculture and textiles

WTO: Recent Developments

Seattles Failed Millennium Round

Main reasons behind the failure

US vs. EU on agricultural subsidies.
US vs. developing countries on labor
standards.
Outside events.

The FutureThe
Development Round
Initiated in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.
Initial deadline for negotiations:
1January2005
Issues:
Agriculture subsidies.
Antidumping measures.
Environmental and labor standards.
Services.
Competition policy.
Government procurement.
Intellectual property.
Etc.

U.S. and WTO Partners Announce Final Agreement on

Landmark Expansion of Information Technology
Agreement in July, 2015
This is the first major tariff-elimination deal at the WTO in 18 years.
WTO can deliver real, commercially significant results, and will eliminate tariffs on
hundreds of Made-In-America information technology products.
ITA Expansion will unlock global economic opportunities at home and abroad.
The WTO estimates that ITA Expansion will eliminate tariffs on approximately $1.3
trillion in annual global exports of information and communications technology (ICT)
products, which global industry estimates will increase annual global GDP by an
estimated $190 billion.
American workers and businesses that design, manufacture, and export
state-of-the-art technology and information products, ranging from hightech healthcare devices to advanced semiconductors to software media
will benefit.

10th Ministerial Conference held on 19 th December 2015 at

Nairobi, Kenya
WTO delivers ground-breaking deal for development of Agriculture
Benefits developing countries in Africa and around the world by getting rid of trade
distorting export subsidies in agriculture.
As regards EU producers, they will for the first time see a level playing field in export
competition, a key priority for EU negotiators.
1. Will stop the use of subsidies and other schemes unfairly supporting agricultural
exports. The elimination of export subsidies will protect vulnerable farmers in
developing countries from the damaging effects of export subsidies. And it will fasttrack the removal of these subsidies in the case of cotton.
2. Ensures that food aid for developing countries is given in a way which does not
distort local markets
3. Seeks to simplify the conditions that exporters from the poorest countries have to
meet, so that their products benefit from trade agreements (so-called rules of
origin). It also gives more opportunities for businesses from the poorest countries to
provide services in the WTO's 164 member countries.

The Claims Outside

The WTO is not democratic.
Trade pacts disregard the environment: race
to the bottom.
Trade pacts promote child labor and
hazardous working conditions.
Free trade shifts jobs from high-wage-highstandard countries to low-wage-low-standard
countries.