Essay, Paragraph, Speech on “The WTO – Whether A Failure?” Complete Paragraph, Speech for Classes 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

The WTO – Whether A Failure?

WTO, an International organization, is the outcome of the several years of deliberations beginning from the end of Second World War and formulation of GATT in 1947.

The GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade) was established to regulate and facilitate the trade among the member nations for the sole purpose of boosting the economic growth and overall development. But with gradual changes in the world economic scenario, the developed countries realized the need of a permanent body to look after the international trade and other related aspects. The 8th round of Multilateral Trade Negotiation, known as Uruguay – Round took place in 1986. These negotiations were to be held at every fourth year, but on account nexuses among the participants on several critical fields such as, Anti Dumping measures, Textile Trade, Agricultural Trade, TRIPs etc, no agreement could be reached. To overcome such problems, Mr. Arthur Dunkel, Director General of GATT, submitted a very detailed proposal, known as Dunkel Proposal. India signed the Dunkel Proposal along with 117 nations on April 15, 1994 and consequently the WTO came into existence on 1st Jan, 1995.

The WTO is meant to regulate and facilitate the international trade but because of the difference of interest between developed and developing countries, it has not resulted what was expected from it.

The third ministerial conference of the WTO at Seattle in Dec.99 was not a success as the developed countries did not indicate much interest in reducing their trade barriers and provided too much stress on labour and environmental standard. ‘India had already expounded her views that it was better to concentrate on the existing agreements rather than taking up new issues.

On Nov.9, 2001, the meeting of WTO was held in Doha, Capital of the Gulf State of Qatar, where negotiations were held for six days. The matter was lastly finalized on Nov.14 after India revealed her intentions’ to sign the draft deal, while opting out of certain aspects of the agreement. On Nov.11, 2001, China also joined the WTO and Taiwan’s application was also approved, thus both became 143th and 144th members of the WTO.

During the year 2003, the developed countries dominated and monopolized an upper hand in world trade and always strive to put their interest over and above the interests of the developing and least developed nations. For the first time, when the negotiations held at Cancun in Mexico for five days in the first half of Sept.2003, the developing countries demonstrated an unusual unity and returned to be dominated by the rich countries led by USA, EU and Japan. As many as 146 members of the WTO, could not succeed in reaching a consensus on fundamental issues of world trade.

The Director General of WTO, Dr. Supachai Panit Chpakdi, in his inaugural address on Sept.10, 2003. called on the ministers to show “flexibility and understanding to reach an agreement that would take the Doha round of trade negotiations forward. “Mr. Supachai further said that “the choice before the meeting was either to strengthen the multilateral trading system or flounder and add to the prevailing uncertainties.”

The Cancum meet approved the applications of Cambodia and Nepal to join the WTO. Nepal and Cambodia are the first least developed countries to join the WTO since the organization replaced the old GATT in 1995. Thousands of European backpackers and militants, US environmentalists,. and Mexican peasants protested against the WTO and other institutions like IMF, which they accused of (the landless people’s movement of) leading a globalization drive that exchanges and hurts, the poor. An activist of the landless people’s movement of South Africa said, “We as the poor people of the world are gaining nothing from WTO, the IMF and the world Bank. They all are working for the interests of the big companies and individuals.”

So far the WTO could not deliver good results despite a long journey undertaken so far. For the success of any such meetings it has to be realized by the rich and developed nations that while forwarding the interests of their own countries, they can’t ignore the world of poor and developing nations in the name of globalization or liberalization.