World Trade Organization College Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

World Trade Organization College - Essay Example The impact has, however, been uneven. Developed WTO members have enjoyed expanded imports under GATT/WTO while there has been little impact of WTO membership on imports in developing WTO members. The role of WTO stimulating international trade is paramount, however, from the perspective of empirical evidence and economic models, WTO's role seems to be controversial in some aspects. The transition from the GATT to the WTO was a significant event, though it did not occur abruptly but as a gradual response to evolutionary changes that have occurred since the original agreement was signed in 1947 and have continued even after the transition in 1995 (Barton et al. 2006). The first evolutionary change such change involved the gradual expansion of the membership in the GATT and the WTO. The original 1947 agreement was signed by twenty-three member states. The number grew over the next decades, with the Dillon Round involving 26 states, 62 states in the Kennedy Round, and 123 in the Uruguay Round (Bagwell and Staiger, 2002). The major consequence of this growth has been a shift away from dominance of the trade system by the United States and a rise in dominancy by other states, notably those of the Europe (Barton et al. 2006). The second evolutionary change includes the expanding scope of the GATT... Uruguay Round, from 1986 to 1994, the subjects included tariffs, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, textiles and clothing, intellectual property, as well as ten other topics (O'Brien et al. 2000). ANALYSIS The WTO requires participants to decrease import barriers but there are important reasons to expect membership to influence exports in the same manner. Members participate in the WTO and motivate their join with their comparative advantages and disadvantages (Kelly, 2009). Participants choose industries and economies, to which they provide protection and simultaneously they aim to obtain access for their competitive industries, preferably those having political support (Feenstra, 2004). If members only eased import controls and did not receive broader market access, only few countries would actively pursue membership (Feenstra, 2004). Second, members produce an extensive amount of work, attempt various strategies as well as apply litigation procedures to secure their rights to foreign markets (Kelly, 2009). Practically, WTO's dispute resolution mechanism represents one of the major advantages of the WTO. For many members it provides legitimate procedures to file costly and, what is m ore important, time consuming litigation that their import/export products are not being given their rights under WTO legislation (Bagwell and Staiger, 2002). Third, countries that participate in the WTO have unique opportunity to export to other states while conducting domestic protection (Feenstra, 2004). Practically, this give an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of free trade, and simultaneously adjusting national economies to global trading regime. It is well-accepted that the GATT/WTO's achievements are outstanding, especially in tariff liberalization (Bagwell and Staiger,