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![]() Monday, May 3, 1999 Published at 14:59 GMT 15:59 UK ![]() ![]() Business: The Economy ![]() WTO: Policing world trade ![]() Some see the WTO as a toy of the US and the EU ![]() The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the policeman of global trade. Its decisions are absolute and every member must abide by its rulings.
Four principles The WTO has 134 members and makes decisions on a basis of unanimity. No country can wield a power of veto. The principles which members sign up to are: extending trade concessions equally to all WTO members, aiming for a freer global trade with lower tariffs everywhere, making trade more predictable through the use of rules and bringing about more competition by cutting subsidies.
The next session is to take place in November, in Seattle. Given the large number of members these are never straight forward affairs with considerable brinkmanship involved. One of the more high profile issues recently, alongside the trade disputes between the US and the EU, has been the lobbying by China to become a member. The WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Gatt, which lasted from the end of the second World War to 1995. WTO decisions can only be reversed by an unanimous vote, just as they can only be made that way. |