The World Trade Organization (WTO)
Established on 1 Jan, 1995
Created by Uruguay Round Negotiations (1986 – 94)

Situated in Geneva, Switzerland, the WTO facilitates trade between nations under the established rules. Most of the countries are member states to WTO agreements. Scope of this organization is to promote world trade by facilitating producers of goods and services to conduct their business.

Current status of WTO as of 1 January 2002

Membership: 144 countries
Budget: 154 million Swiss francs for 2003
Head of the Organization: Supachai Panitchpakdi (director-general)

Functions
 
Administering WTO trade agreements
Forum for trade negotiations
Handling trade disputes
Monitoring national trade policies
Technical assistance and training for developing countries
Cooperation with other international organizations

WTO Agreements
 
The prevailing sets of agreements were achieved with the concerted efforts of the member states from a prolonged Uruguay Round Negotiations. The precursor of the agreement being the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, popularly known as GATT as the guiding principle.
 
The new rules created from the Uruguay round deals with services, concerns on intellectual property, dispute settlement and trade policy reviews.
 
The organization aims at creating barrier free access to markets of all member countries. It also plays a major role for strengthening the economies of the developing countries extending enough flexibility in adhering to the established agreements. Therefore a systematic phasing in and integration of relatively weaker economies into the World Trade is among the goals of WTO.

Specific Effects
 
Goods: GATT objectives were primarily to ensure a healthy and non-discriminative trade practices. During the period 1947 to 1994, only goods were covered under GATT.
 
It may be noted that the ICC's Pre-Arbitral Referee Procedure complements these Rules. It was introduced in 1990 to provide parties with an alternative to Courts of law in obtaining urgent interim relief in connection with international commercial disputes.

Services: Formation of WTO, its agreements after the Uruguay Round gives much emphasis on the Services and Intellectual Property, which were hitherto not covered under the GATT till 1994.
 
Now market access is available for banking services, Insurance, Telecommunications, Tourism, Hotel Chains, and Transportation Chains under the free access principles covering goods. These are extensively covered in the new General Agreements o n Trade in Services (GATS). WTO members have also made individual commitments under GATS stating which of their services sectors they are willing to open to foreign competition, and how open those markets are.
 
In order to use the various arbitration related services, it may be prudent to have such Arbitration Clauses incorporated in the contracts, its scope, acceptability on findings and other such pertinent factors as found necessary on a case to case basis. It is only in such cases arbitration related disputes can find amicable settlements.

Intellectual Property: The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). WTO’s agreement on TRIPS covers rules on trade and investment in ideas and creativity. It states how copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical names used to identify products, industrial designs etc. are protected when traded.

Settlement of Disputes: WTO has a very effective dispute settling mechanism among member states. Rule of Law prevails over disputes and the mechanism in place has been proved effective with even most powerful economies adhering to its recommendations.