WTO – Concept, history, functions and member countries

We explain what the WTO is, the history of this world organization and its objectives. In addition, its different functions and countries that comprise it.

What is the WTO?

WTO is the acronym for the World Trade Organization, an international organization with no ties to the United Nations (UN) system, nor to the Bretton Woods organizations (such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund), dedicated to monitoring international standards governing trade among the nations of the world, serving as an impartial observer in them and as support if necessary.

The WTO is currently headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and operates on the basis of a Ministerial Conference, which is its highest body and meets regularly. Instead, its General Council is the main permanent body, in which all member states are represented, together with their observer states. From there numerous committees and commissions arise to address particular issues.

In total, the countries that make up the WTO sign around 60 trade agreements that the organization is responsible for overseeing. The system obliges the member countries to accept all of these agreements, not being able to sign one and the other, which means that modifying the terms of said agreements is enormously complex and takes lengthy discussions between national delegates and the Director General. of the organization.

The WTO has been highly questioned in its internal workings and above all in its role of supporting insurgent economies. He has been accused of irregular negotiations in favor of small groups and marginalizing important countries; or to operate in favor of the most powerful economies, since the countries with smaller economies cannot cope with the requirements of collective bargaining.

History of the WTO

The beginnings of the WTO go back to the GATT, a general agreement treaty on customs tariffs signed in October 1947, which lasted until 1986, when a joint declaration was signed in Punta del Este, Uruguay, to start the necessary negotiations to found the WTO.

These negotiations were called the “Uruguay Round” and continued until 1993, when the terms of the GATT were renegotiated and a new agreement was established, called “GATT 1994”, and the WTO was now formalized.

There was a subsequent “Round” in 2001, called “Doha”, in which the terms of expansion of the organization and the expansion of liberal trade around the world continued to be discussed, especially in countries with insurgent economies. This led, after years of debate, to the successful signing of the Bali Accords in December 2013.

Functions of the WTO

The primary role of the WTO is to ensure that trade between nations of the world occurs in the most fluid, predictable and free way possible, for the well-being of their respective economies. For it, the countries that belong to the WTO sign a series of agreements on the matter, ratifying them in their respective parliaments, to trade based on a series of clear and common rules.

In this sense, the WTO serves as a forum for negotiations, settlement of trade disputes and differences among its members, and support for the economies of developing countries.

WTO member countries

The full members of the WTO are:

The observer countries are: Andorra, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belarus, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vatican City, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Sudan , Uzbekistan.