WTO &

GATT
Presented By:
Tanay Sinha
 Aim at expanding competency of
GATT to new areas.

 Agriculture was one of the

important part of the conference.
 On umbrella agreement
 Agreements for each 3 broad areas of trade
that WTO covers.
 Dispute settlement
 Reviews of government trade policies

CRITICISMS
 By groups such as Oxfam
 NGO such as Health Gap and Global Trade
Watch
General Agreement On Tariffs &
Trade
Fundamental Principles

 General principle of most favored nation

treatment
 Principle of national treatment with regard to
taxation and internal regulations
 The Doha Declaration was approved by 142
countries at the fourth Ministerial meeting of the
World Trade Organization.
 The agreement states that if a country is not in
full agreement with the proposed WTO
declaration, it can be put out of discussions.
 Its objective is to lower trade barriers around
the world, which allows countries to increase
trade globally.
 The outcome of the conference took into account
a number of concerns expressed by India.
 Implementations Issues
 Agriculture

 Services

 TRIPS

 Labor
 Paragraph 1: “We recognize the gravity of public health
problems afflicting many developing and least developed
countries, especially those resulting from HIV/ AIDS,
tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics”.
 Paragraph 2: “We stress the need for the WTO Agreement on
Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs
Agreement) to be part of the wider national and international
action to address these problems”.
 Paragraph 3: “We recognize that intellectual property
protection is important for the development of new medicines.
We also recognize the concerns about its effects on prices”.
 Paragraph 4: “The TRIPS Agreement does not and should not
prevent members from taking measures to protect public
health. Accordingly, reiterating our commitment to the TRIPS
Agreement, we affirm that the Agreement can and should be
interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO
members’ right to protect public health and, in particular, to
promote access to medicines for all”.
The agreements fall into a simple structure with six main parts:

An umbrella agreement (the Agreement Establishing the WTO)

Agreements for each of the three broad areas of trade that the WTO
covers: goods and investment (the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in
Goods including the GATT 1994 and the Trade Related Investment
Measures (TRIMS), General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS)

Dispute settlement (DSU) and

Reviews of government’s trade policies (TPRM).

 It oversees the implementation, administration
and operation of the covered agreements.

 WTO is also a center of economic research and

analysis.

 WTO cooperates closely with the two other

components of the Bretton Woods system, the
IMF and the World Bank.
 The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international
organization designed to supervise and liberalize international
trade.
 The WTO's headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland.
 The WTO came into being on 1 January 1995, and is the
successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), which was created in 1947, and continued to operate
for almost five decades.
 The WTO's stated goal is to improve the welfare of the people
of its member countries.
 This main mission is further specified in certain core functions
serving and safeguarding five fundamental principles, which
are the foundation of the multilateral trading system.
 The WTO has 153 members, which represents more than
95% of total world trade.
 The WTO is governed by a Ministerial Conference, which
meets every two years
 It has General Council, which implements the
conference's policy decisions and is responsible for day-
to-day administration
 director-general of WTO is appointed by the Ministerial
Conference.
 The World Trade Organization deals with the rules of trade
between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for
negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and
is in charge of policing member countries' adherence to
all the WTO agreements, signed by the majority of the
world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments.
 Reduce distortions and impediments to
international trade.
 Smooth Functioning of IPR’s.

 Resolve disputes on trade related IP

issues.

 To establish a mutually supportive

relationship between the WTO & WIPO.

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 Non-discrimination features prominently in TRIPS, similar
to GATT and GATS by following principles of:
 National Treatment (Article 3): Equal treatment for
foreign and domestic individuals and companies
 Most Favored Nation (Article 4): Equal treatment for
nationals of all trading partners in the WTO
 TRIPS Agreement has additional important principle:
Intellectual property protection should contribute to
technical innovation and transfer of technology

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 COPYRIGHTS
 TRADEMARKS
 GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
 INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
 PATENTS
 LAYOUT DESIGN of INTEGRATED
CIRCUITS AND TRADE SECRETS
 Setting minimum standards.

 Enforcement

 Dispute Settlement- TRIP’s, DSB, SS.

15
 Benefits and costs of higher IP standards
for developing countries
 Protection of traditional knowledge and
culture
 Biological diversity
 Health
 Food
 Investment and transfer of technology

16
 Trade Related Investment Measures Agreement
(TRIMS) came into effect on 1 January, 1995 as
part of the Uruguay Round negotiations.
 It prohibited member countries making the
approval of investment conditional on compliance
with laws, policies or administrative regulations
that favored domestic products.
 Local content requirements where governments
require enterprises to use or purchase domestic
products.
 Trade balancing measures where governments
impose restrictions on imports by an enterprise or
link the amount of imports to the level of its exports.
 Foreign exchange balancing requirements where an
enterprise has the level of imports linked to the
value of its exports in order to maintain a net foreign
exchange earnings.
The lack of a precise definition
means that the issue is not always
clear cut and there has been
considerable disagreement as to
whether or not certain measures
are covered by the Agreement.
 9 developing countries have applied for
extension of transition period in respect of
certain TRIMs which had been notified by
them.
 Members who have not notified TRIMs or
have not yet requested an extension are to
be pursued as a matter of priority, under the
aegis of the General Council, by the
Chairman of the Council for Trade in Goods.
 The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), was established after World War II in the
wake of other new multilateral institutions
dedicated to international economic cooperation.

 The GATT was the only multilateral instrument

governing international trade from 1948 until the
WTO was established in 1995.
There were several rounds of
Negotiations under the GATT.

GATT trade rounds concentrated on

further reducing tariffs.

The Kennedy Round in the mid-sixties

brought about a GATT antidumping.

The Tokyo Round during the seventies

was the first major attempt to tackle
trade barriers that do not take the form
of tariffs.
These plurilateral agreements were not
accepted by the full GATT membership,
they were often informally called
"codes".

Several of these codes were amended in

the Uruguay Round, and turned into
multilateral commitments accepted by
all WTO members.

Only four remained plurilateral, but in

1997 WTO members agreed to terminate
 WTO –Implication on Indian Economy
By P.K.Vasudeva

 Google.com

 Wikipedia.com
THANK
YOU