Introduction of WTO :The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. The organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements, and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (19861994).

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Def of WTO :An international agency which encourages trade between member nations, administers global trade agreements and resolves disputes when they arise.

Director:Pascal Lamy is the fifth Director-General of the WTO. His appointment took effect on 1 September 2005 for a four-year term. In April 2009 WTO members reappointed Mr Lamy for a second four-year term, starting on 1 September 2009

GauriFunctions of WTOThe WTO is a new international organisation set up as a permanent body. It is designed to play the role of a watchdog in the spheres of trade in goods, trade in services, foreign investment, intellectual property rights, etc. Article III has set out the following five functions of WTO;(i) Administering and Implementing the multilateral and plurilateral trade agreements. : The WTO shall facilitate the implementation, administration and operation and further the objectives of this Agreement and of the Multilateral Trade Agreements, and shall also provide the frame work for the implementation, administration and operation of the plurilateral Trade Agreements.(ii) Acting as a forum for multilateral trade negotiations : The WTO shall provide the forum for negotiations among its members concerning their multilateral trade relations in matters dealt with under the Agreement in the Annexes to this Agreement.(iii) Seeking to resolve trade disputes.: The WTO shall administer the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes. The WTO shall administer Trade Policy Review Mechanism.WTOs Trade-related technical assistance (TRTA) activities and programmes are geared towards sustainable trade capacity-building in beneficiary countries.(iv) Overseeing national trade policies.: With a view to achieving greater coherence in global economic policy making, the WTO shall cooperate, as appropriate, with the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and its affiliated agencies.

SnehaObjectives of WTO1.Introduce sustainable development.:Trade is a powerful ally of sustainable development. The WTOs founding agreement recognizes sustainable development as a central principle, and it is an objective running through all subjects in current Doha negotiations.2.The WTO reiterates the objectives of GATT : GATT was converted from a provisional agreement into a formal international organisation called World Trade Organization (WTO) with effect from January 1, 1995. WTO will serve as a single institutional framework encompassing GATT and all the result of the Uruguay Round. It will be directed by a Ministerial Conference that will meet at least once every two years and its regular business will be overseen by a General Council. The WTO is a more powerful body with enlarged functions than the GATT and is envisaged to play a major role in the world economic affairs.3.Taking positive steps to ensure that developing countries:To ensure that developing countries secure a better balance in the sharing of the advantages resulting from the expansion of international trade corresponding to their developmental needs4.Raising standard of living and income:To increase the level of production and productivity with a view to ensuring level of employment in the world And To improve the level of living for the global population and speed up economic development of the member nations.

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The WTO StructureThe structure of the WTO is dominated by its highest authority, the Ministerial Conference, composed of representatives of all WTO members, which is required to meet at least every two years and which can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. The day-to-day work of the WTO, however, falls to a number of subsidiary bodies; principally the General Council, also composed of all WTO members, which is required to report to the Ministerial Conference. As well as conducting its regular work on behalf of the Ministerial Conference, the General Council convenes in two particular forms - as the Dispute Settlement Body, to oversee the dispute settlement procedures and as the Trade Policy Review Body to conduct regular reviews of the trade policies of individual WTO members. The General Council delegates responsibility to three other major bodies - namely the Councils for Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property. The Council for Goods oversees the implementation and functioning of all the agreements (Annex 1A of the WTO Agreement) covering trade in goods, though many such agreements have their own specific overseeing bodies. The latter two Councils have responsibility for their respective WTO agreements and may establish their own subsidiary bodies as necessary. Three other bodies are established by the Ministerial Conference and report to the General Council. The Committee on Trade and Development is concerned with issues relating to the developing countries and, especially, to the "least-developed" among them. The Committee on Balance of Payments is responsible for consultations between WTO members and countries which take trade-restrictive measures, under Articles XII and XVIII of GATT, in order to cope with balance-of-payments difficulties. Finally, issues relating to WTO's financing and budget are dealt with by a Committee on Budget. Each of the four plurilateral agreements of the WTO - those on civil aircraft, government procurement, dairy products and bovine meat - establish their own management bodies which are required to report to the General Council. PrajaktaWTO PRINCIPLES1. Most-favoured-nation (MFN): Treating other people equally . Under the WTO agreements, countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading partners. Grant someone a special favour (such as a lower customs duty rate for one of their products) and you have to do the same for all other WTO members.This principle is known as most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment (see box). It is so important that it is the first article of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which governs trade in goods. MFN is also a priority in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) (Article 2) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (Article 4), although in each agreement the principle is handled slightly differently. Together, those three agreements cover all three main areas of trade handled by the WTO.

2. National treatment: Treating foreigners and locals equally Imported and locally-produced goods should be treated equally at least after the foreign goods have entered the market. The same should apply to foreign and domestic services, and to foreign and local trademarks, copyrights and patents. This principle of national treatment (giving others the same treatment as ones own nationals) is also found in all the three main WTO agreements (Article 3 of GATT, Article 17 of GATS and Article 3 of TRIPS), although once again the principle is handled slightly differently in each of these.National treatment only applies once a product, service or item of intellectual property has entered the market. Therefore, charging customs duty on an import is not a violation of national treatment even if locally-produced products are not charged an equivalent tax.

3.Freer trade: A new WTO Secretariat study published today (19 June) finds that trade liberalization helps poor countries to catch up with rich ones and that this faster economic growth helps to alleviate poverty. WTO Director-General Mike Moore said: This report confirms that although trade alone may not be enough to eradicate poverty, it is essential if poor people are to have any hope of a brighter future. For example, 30 years ago, South Korea was as poor as Ghana. Today, thanks to trade led growth, it is as rich as Portugal.4. Transparency :The Singapore Ministerial Conference of 1996 set up the multilateral Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement to conduct a study on transparency in government procurement practices, taking into account national policies and, on that basis, to develop elements suitable for inclusion in an appropriate agreement.

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5.LDCsIn the last few years WTO members have concentrated a lot of efforts into improving the condition of least-developed countries (LDCs) inside the multilateral trading system, both in terms of market access and technical assistance. Measures taken in the framework of the WTO can help LDCs increase their exports to other WTO members and attract investment.6. BOP :Countries facing balance-of-payment difficulty may apply import restrictions under provisions in the GATT 1994 agreement and under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).7.ENVIRONMENTThe WTO has no specific agreement dealing with the environment. However, the WTO agreements confirm governments right to protect the environment, provided certain conditions are met, and a number of them include provisions dealing with environmental concerns. The objectives of sustainable development and environmental protection are important enough to be stated in the preamble to the Agreement Establishing the WTO.8. Dismantling Trade Barrier : Technical regulations and product standards may vary from country to country. Having many different regulations and standards makes life difficult for producers and exporters. If regulations are set arbitrarily, they could be used as an excuse for protectionism. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade tries to ensure that regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles, while also providing members with the right to implement measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives, such as the protection of human health and safety, or the environment.

AnandKey Subj In Wto:1.Agriculture :The agriculture negotiations are difficult because of the wide range of views and interests among member governments, the large number of active participants, and the complexity of many issues. The aim is to contribute to further liberalization of agricultural trade, allowing countries to compete on quality and price rather than on the size of their subsidies. That is particularly the case for many developing countries whose economies depend on an increasingly diverse range of primary and processed agricultural products, exported to an increasing variety of markets, including to other developing countries.At the heart of the talks are thethree pillars: market access: cutting tariffs, expanding tariff-quotas and various flexibilities for these exports subsidies (officially export competition): eliminating these and disciplining export credit, food aid and state trading enterprises to eliminate hidden export subsidies domestic support: cutting supports that distort trade (by stimulating over-production and artificially raising or lowering prices) and disciplining forms of support that could distort trade.

2.Health & safety measures :Article 20 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) allows governments to act on trade in order to protect human, animal or plant life or health, In addition, there are two specific WTO agreements dealing with food safety and animal and plant health and safety, and with product standards in general. Both try to identify how to meet the need to apply standards and at the same time avoid protectionism in disguise.

Priya3.Textiles and Clothing : After more than forty years of trade with import quotas, the textiles and clothing sector eventually became subject to the general rules of the WTO from January 1, 2005. Protection of the textile and clothing sector has a long history. In 1962, a Long-term Agreement regarding International Trade in Cotton Textiles (LTA) was signed under the auspices of GATT. The LTA was renegotiated several times until it was replaced by the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) which came into force in 1974. The MFA was negotiated four times and it finally expired in 1994. The expiration of the MFA did not, however, mean the end of the quotas. With the establishment of the WTO in 1995, the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) was negotiated as a transitory regime to the full integration of textiles and clothing into the multi-lateral trading system. Four countries had been restricting their imports of textiles and clothing (Canada, the EU, Norway and the United States). The integration took place in four steps over a ten year period, ending on 31 December 2004.4.Helping least developed and food importing countries :A number of developing countries that depend on imports for their food supply are also concerned about possible rises in world food prices as a result of reductions in richer countries subsidies. Although they accepted that higher prices can benefit farmers and increase domestic production, they feel that their concerns about food imports need to be addressed more effectively.

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