World Trade Organization Essays Example

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization that regulates global trade between nations. It was established in 1995 following the Marrakech Agreement, which replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The main goal of the WTO is to provide fair and easy access to producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers in the global trade. Specifically, the organization oversees trade agreements among its member countries; implements and evaluates governments to ensure that their trade policies are transparent and cognizant with WTO agreements; settles trade disputes; establishes and ensures trade capacity; and reaches out to other NGOs and concerned organizations (WTO.org).
The World Trade Organization organized the Doha Development Round in 2001 in the hopes of breaking, or at least, lowering trade barriers and ease international trade. However, WTO has met criticism at this for failing to miss most of its agendas. As of June 2012, the Doha Round has not yet achieved its 21-list programs, which it should have in 2005. The unresolved issues of free trade on industrial goods and services while keeping farm subsidies on agricultural products are considered the major threats.
Furthermore, it is obvious that WTO favors the developed economies. Rich countries, in particular, are allowed to charge exorbitant import duties on certain products from developing nations, thus, preventing developing countries from gaining grounds in the international trade. It is also unfair that developed nations are allowed to subsidized and protect their agriculture products, while forcing developing nations to open their market. Also, WTO has yet to elucidate the issue between the governments’ ability to ensure public health and the pharmaceutical companies’ intellectual property rights, rendering poor countries from eradicating if not minimizing illnesses, which they could have done if they were given access to affordable medicines. The WTO, thus, failed on its core mission of providing its member countries fair and easy access to global trade (Walker).

References

Walker, Aurelie. The WTO has failed developing nations. The Guardian. 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/nov/14/wto-fails-developing-countries
Word Trade Organization. Understanding the WTO: What We Do. Retrieved: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/what_we_do_e.htm