IDCC - The Role of the World Trade Organization (Lesson)
The Role of the World Trade Organization
Introduction
With an ever-growing, ever-changing global society, in regard to business and international trade, there are continued opportunities for new trade agreements between countries. There are also bound to be disputes, conflicts, and obstacles that come up among the various governments. Another avenue of support for a prosperous trade economy is the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is an international organization whose primary purpose is to provide a forum for negotiating trade agreements and building open trade to benefit all. The WTO deals with the rules of trade between nations and serves as a catalyst for trade opening, a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements, among other issues concerning its member states. In this lesson, we will take a brief look into what the World Trade Organization is about.
The World Trade Organization (WTO)
Negotiations are the core of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Everything that the WTO does is through the result of negotiations. The primary purpose of the WTO is to ensure that individuals, companies, and governments from around the world know what the trade rules are. The efforts are to lower trade barriers and to open trade for all. WTO negotiations result in contractual agreements between countries with the intent of the countries to keep their agreed upon trade policies.
The functions of the WTO are:
- 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
Review the document below (which is provided by the WTO) for more basic information about the World Trade Organization.
Click here to download the document about the World Trade Organization Links to an external site.
Let's Review!
Take a moment to participate in the following activity to practice your understanding of the topics in this module. Reach out to your instructor if you have any questions.
Final Thoughts
The Word Trade Organization (WTO) is a member organization and not all countries are members; however, the work of the organization paves the way for open trade for all countries. The WTO works to ensure that global trade operates smoothly, freely, and predictably. It sets the rules of trade for member countries which in turn offers a system of international trade and commerce. WTO also provides its member countries with a fair process to handle disputes.
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