Presented By:

Alok Pandey
Amit Shukla
Ankur Mundra
Ayush Singhania
Priyank Jain
Sonal Lodha
What is WTO ?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an
organization that intends to supervise and liberalize
international trade

Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as

smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
GATT (Important)

The General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT)

came into existence in 1947
The combined package of trade rules and tariff
concessions negotiation and agreed by 23 countries out
of 50 participating countries
GATT provide a multilateral forum during 1948-94 to
discuss the trade problems and reduction of trade
barriers
Eight rounds of negotiations had taken place during five
decades of its existence
World Trade Organization: Rounds
Rounds of GATT
Multilateral Trade Negotiations
No. Years Name Accomplishments
1-5 1947-61 Reduced tariffs
World Trade Organization: Rounds
Rounds of GATT
Multilateral Trade Negotiations
No. Years Name Accomplishments
1-5 1947-61 Reduced tariffs
6 1964-67 Kennedy Tariffs + anti-dumping
World Trade Organization: Rounds
Rounds of GATT
Multilateral Trade Negotiations
No. Years Name Accomplishments
1-5 1947-61 Reduced tariffs
6 1964-67 Kennedy Tariffs + anti-dumping
7 1973-79 Tokyo Tariffs + NTBs
World Trade Organization: Rounds
Rounds of GATT
Multilateral Trade Negotiations
No. Years Name Accomplishments
1-5 1947-61 Reduced tariffs
6 1964-67 Kennedy Tariffs + anti-dumping
7 1973-79 Tokyo Tariffs + NTBs
8 1986-94 Uruguay Tariffs, NTBs, Services, Intellectual Property,
Textiles, Ag., Dispute Settlement, Created
WTO
World Trade Organization: Rounds
(Important)

Rounds of GATT
Multilateral Trade Negotiations
No. Years Name Accomplishments
1-5 1947-61 Reduced tariffs
6 1964-67 Kennedy Tariffs + anti-dumping
7 1973-79 Tokyo Tariffs + NTBs
8 1986-94 Uruguay Tariffs, NTBs, Services, Intellectual Property,
Textiles, Ag., Dispute Settlement, Created
WTO
9 2001-? Doha ? (Doha Development Agenda)
 Duration of GATT rounds and number of countries involved
120
number of countries at start

100
Tokyo Uruguay
80
Kennedy
Third

60
Fourth
Second
First

40
Dillon
20

0
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995
year
WTO (Important)

The WTO was born out of the General Agreement on

Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Headquarters : Geneva, Switzerland

Formation : : 1 January 1995

Membership : 153 member countries

Budget : 163 million USD (Approx).

WTO
It is an international organization designed to supervise
and liberalize international trade

World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the rules

of trade between nations at a global or near-global level

It also covers a wide range of issues related to

international trade such as protection of intellectual
property rights and dispute settlement
Purpose (Important)

The WTO’s overriding objective is to help trade flow

smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably. It does this by:
Administering trade agreements
Acting as a forum for trade negotiations
Settling trade disputes
Reviewing national trade policies
Assisting developing countries in trade policy
issues, through technical assistance and Training
programs
Cooperating with other international organizations
WTO Vs GATT (Important)

GATT WTO
It was ad hoc & It is permanent
provisional
It has legal basis because
It had no provision for member nations have
creating an organization verified the WTO agreements

It allowed contradictions More authority than GATT

in local law & GATT It doesn't allow any
agreements contradictions in local law
WTO Structure (Important)

Ministerial Conference
General Council
Dispute Settlement Body
Trade Policy Review Body
Councils
Council for Trade in Goods
Council for Trade in Services
Council for TRIPs
Committees and other subsidiary bodies
Decision-making
GATT
Roles played in sectors :
Opening up of the Industrial Sector
Reduction in Tariffs
6.3% to 3.8% in developed countries
15.3 % to 12.3% in developing countries
Creating Fairer market in Agriculture Sector
Elimination of non-tariff through ‘Tariffication’ process
eg. Quotas and other trade restrictive measures
Domestic support
Categories of Domestic process in
agriculture sector
●
Payments for Natural Disaster
●
Govt. expenditure on agricultural research ,pest control, inspection,
Green Box marketing
●
Financial participation by govt. in income insurance
●
Payments under environmental programes

●
Refer to amber color of traffic lights
Amber Box ●
Supports only to domestic producers

●
Direct payments to farmers
Blue Box ●
Encourages government assistance program
GATS (Important)

It consists of 3 elements :

1. The main text containing general obligations and disciplines
four ways of trading internationally:
Mode 1: Services applied from one country to another (eg.
International telephone calls), officially “Cross Border Supply”
Mode 2 : Consumers or firms making use of a service in another
country eg. Tourism officially “ consumption abroad”
Mode 3 : foreign company setting up subsidiaries or branches to
provide service in another country eg. Foreign banks setting up
operations in a country. Officially “ commercial presence”
Mode 4: Individuals travelling from their own country to supply
services in another eg. Fashion models or consultants officially
“presence of natural persons .”
2. Annexes dealing with rules for specific sectors
Most –Favored Nations

3. Individual countries specific commitments to provide

excess to their markets
Commitment on market excess and national
treatments
GENERAL OBLIGATIONS AND DISCIPLINES:
Rules in GATS
Transparency(enquiry points )
Disclosure of Confidential Information
Objectivity and reasonability of regulations
Recognition (licenses)
Complexities of international trade in
services
Movement of Natural Person
Financial Service
Telecommunication
Air Transport
TRIPS (Important)

Flexibility to public health problems

The main issues in Trips include:-
TRIPS-CBD(Convention on biological diversity)
Relationship and protection of additional
knowledge
Extension of additional protection to geographical
indications other than wines and spirits
Establishment of multilateral register for wines and
spirits
Cont…
TRIPS agreements should be amended to provide for:-
Disclosure of source and country of origin of
biological resource and of traditional knowledge
used in the invention
Disclosure of evidence of prior informed consent
under the relevant national regime
Disclosure of evidence of benefit sharing under the
relevant national government
Curbing Unfair Marketing Practices
To assess their implications in the target markets .
International market competition get distorted mainly
by:-
If the exported goods benefit from the subsidies
If exported goods are dumped in overseas market.
To charge compensatory duties on import of products :
The Agreements authorize importing countries :
Anti-Dumping Practices (ADP)
Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
Agreements on anti-dumping practices
A product is considered to be dumped if:
The export price is less than the price charged for
the same product in the exporting country
It is sold for less than its cost of production.
Circumvention
Exporters –importers may manage to avoid anti-
dumping duties by:
Emerging Protection from Imports
WTO agreements on safe guards prohibit ‘grey-area’

measures
Voluntary Export Restraints

Orderly Marketing Arrangements

Attempting To Reduce Non- Tariff Barriers
• Import Licensing Procedures.

• Custom Valuation.

• Pre-shipment Inspection

• Rules of origin
Plurilateral Agreements
Fair trade in civil aircraft

Opening up of competition in government

procurement
Dispute Settlement Process
Responsibility

Authority

Monitoring
Stages Of Dispute Settlement Process (Imp)

First stage-consultation (up to 60 days)

Second stage-the panel (up to 45 days for a panel to

be appointed, plus 6 months for the panel to
conclude)
Dispute Settlement Process (Imp)
Consultation Stage
• Member to member
• 60 days

Panel review Stage

• Dispute Settlement Body
• May last upto 9 months

If countries
If panel is
involved
accepted by
appeal the
countries
panel
involved

Appellate Stage
• Appellate body reviews panels legal
findings
• Report due within 60-90 days

DBS adopts panel

report
Cont….
Before first hearing

First hearing

Rebuttals

Expert

First draft

Interim report

Review

Final report
Ministerial conferences
Six ministerial conference has taken place
1. Singapore ministerial conference
2. Geneva ministerial conference
3. Seattle ministerial conference
4. Doha ministerial conference
5. Cancun ministerial conference
6. The Hong Kong ministerial conference
Singapore ministerial conference
Took place in 9-13 Dec 1996
Major developed countries brought in proposal
This was generally opposed by developing countries
Informational technology agreement was an
important decision
Geneva ministerial conference
Held at Geneva(Switzerland) 18-20 may, 1998
Discussed developing and least developing country
US sponsored zero duty on electronic commerce
Seattle ministerial conference
Held in Seattle (US) on 30 Nov to 3 Dec 1999
Dramatic change in negotiations for developing
countries
Developed countries tried to push new issues
Developing countries insisted upon priority attention
Total collapse of the mc
Cancun ministerial conference
Held in Cancun (Mexico) during 10-14 Sept 2003
Major developed and developing countries
Developed countries gave major subsidies on
production and export of agriculture
Developed countries again started to negotiation on
Singapore issue
No agreement could be reached
MC terminated again
The Hong Kong ministerial conference
Took place in Hong Kong during 13-18 Dec 2005
Amendment of TRIPS agreement
Duty free, quota free market for all LDC product
Resolved complete Doha work
Elimination of export subsidies in cotton by developed
countries
Three heaviest subsidizer EU,US and Japan
The dead lock in WTO negotiation
G-20
(Including India
and brazil)
Greater market access
To industrial products and services

The Doha dead

back
Lowering of international
•Deeper cuts in domestic
tariffs
•Agriculture subsidies
•Accepting lower EU market
EU US •access
WTO system and developing countries
Developing countries form a much bigger group
Lairized trade in goods and services
Reciprocity is basis for liberalization under the WTO
The basic treatment of multilateral frame work such
as national treatment
WTO and Issues Concerning India
Aim to participate in WTO rule based system with
greater stability, transparency and predictability in
governance of international trade.
Developing countries like India availed of greater
trade opportunities and also challenged certain
policies of developed countries (DCs)
Developmental issues increasingly focused along with
trade issues
Uruguay Round
The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of multilateral
trade negotiations (MTN) conducted within the
framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The main objectives of the Uruguay Round were:
to reduce agricultural subsidies
to put restrictions on foreign investment, and
to begin the process of opening trade in services
like banking and insurance.
They also wanted to draft a code to deal with copyright
violation and other forms of intellectual property rights
DOHA Development Round
Trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) which commenced in November 2001
Agriculture, industrial tariffs and non-tariff barriers, services,
and trade remedies
Difference between developed nations and developing nations
The most recent round of negotiations, 23–29 July 2008.
The negotiations collapsed on 29 July over issues of agricultural
trade between the United States, India, and China.
Issues
1. Agriculture
2. Access to patented medicines
3. Special and differential treatment
 THE
THE WTO
WTO IMPACT
IMPACT

GATT/GATS
GATT/GATS TRIMS
TRIMS TRIPS
TRIPS

Liberalizatio
Liberalizatio Liberalization
Liberalization Provides
Provides
n
n of
of the
the trade
trade of
of monopoly
monopoly
in
in Goods
Goods and
and international
international power
power to
to owners
owners
services
services investments
investments of
of intellectual
intellectual
property
property

Increases Increases
Increases
Increases Opportunity foreign
comp Facilitates
Facilitates Opportunity foreign
comp for Facilitates
Facilitates joint
joint Facilitates
Facilitates
from global
global for Indian
Indian investment
investment
from firms ventures
ventures and
and foreign
foreign
foreign sourcing
sourcing firms to
to and
and
foreign export technology
technology investment
investment byby
G/S export competition
competition
G/S acquisition
acquisition Indian
Indian firms
firms
for
for foreign
foreign
firms
firms
Increase
Increase
Benefits
Benefits Benefits
Benefits
Threats
Threats to
to competitivene
competitivene Benefits
Benefits to
to the
the
to
to Threat
Threat to
to domestic
domestic
domestic
domestic ss
ss of
of the
the economy
economy
customer
customer domestic
domestic firms
firms
firms
firms domestic
domestic
ss firms
firms
firms
firms

Encourages
Encourages globalization
globalization of
of Indian
Indian firms
firms
Areas of concern
In spite of special provisions for developing
countries, certain imbalances and inequities
experienced
A number of DCs not fulfilled some obligations for
trade liberalization while developing countries
asked to reduce import duties and provide greater
market access
Customs duties important source of revenue for
developing countries like India
Areas of concern (Cont..)
Non-agricultural tariffs gradually reduced but
agricultural tariffs require greater caution due to
following reasons
India and other developing countries have argued that
agriculture is way of life and employs large proportion
of workforce while contributing significantly to GDP
Exposure to volatile international market would affect
not only domestic prices but also incomes of poor
What India Should do?
The most important things for India to address are
speed up internal reforms in building up world-class
infrastructure like roads, ports and electricity supply.

India's ranking in recent Global Competitiveness

report is not very encouraging due to infrastructure
problems, poor governance, poor legal system and
poor market access provided by India
Our tariffs are still high compared to Developed countries
and there will be pressure to reduce them further and
faster
India has solid strength, at least for mid term (5-7 years)
in services sector primarily in IT sector
India would do well to reorganize its Protective
Agricultural policy in name of rural poverty and Food
security and try to capitalize on globalization of
agriculture markets
India must improve legal and administrative
infrastructure, improve trade facilitation through
cutting down bureaucracy and delays and further ease
its financial markets
India has to downsize non-plan expenditure in
Subsidies and Government salaries and perquisites like
pensions and administrative expenditures
Corruption will also have to be checked by bringing in
fast remedial public grievance system, legal system
and  information dissemination by using e-governance
The petroleum sector has to be boosted to tap crude
oil and gas resources within Indian boundaries and
entering into multinational contracts to source oil
reserves
Thank You