The organization is attempting to complete negotiations on the Doha Development Round,
which was launched in 2001 with an explicit focus on addressing the needs of developing
countries. As of June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remains uncertain: the work
programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and
the round is still incomplete. The conflict between free trade on industrial goods and services
but retention of protectionism on farm subsidies to domestic agricultural sector (requested by
developed countries) and the substantiation of the international liberalization of fair trade on
agricultural products (requested by developing countries) remain the major obstacles. These
points of contention have hindered any progress to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the
Doha Development Round. As a result of this impasse, there have been an increasing number of
bilateral free trade agreements signed. As of July 2012, there are various negotiation groups in
the WTO system for the current agricultural trade negotiation which is in the condition of
stalemate. WTO's current Director-General is Pascal Lamy
The WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established
after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international
economic cooperation — notably the Bretton Woods institutions known as the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund. A comparable international institution for trade, named the
International Trade Organization was successfully negotiated. The ITO was to be a United
Nations specialized agency and would address not only trade barriers but other issues indirectly
related to trade, including employment, investment, restrictive business practices, and
commodity agreements. But the ITO treaty was not approved by the U.S. and a few other
signatories and never went into effect. In the absence of an international organization for
trade, the GATT would over the years "transform itself" into a de facto international
organization.
Uruguay Round: Well before GATT's 40th anniversary, its members concluded that the GATT
system was straining to adapt to a new globalizing world economy. In response to the problems
identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration (structural deficiencies, spill-over impacts of
certain countries' policies on world trade GATT could not manage etc.), the eighth GATT round
— known as the Uruguay Round — was launched in September 1986.
It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed: the talks were going to extend
the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property,
and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles; all the original GATT
articles were up for review. The Final Act concluding the Uruguay Round and officially
establishing the WTO regime was signed April 15, 1994, during the ministerial meeting at
Marrakesh, Morocco, and hence is known as the Marrakesh Agreement.
The agreements fall into a structure with six main parts:
The Agreement Establishing the WTO
Goods and investment — the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods including the
GATT 1994 and the Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS)
which was launched in 2001 with an explicit focus on addressing the needs of developing
countries. As of June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remains uncertain: the work
programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and
the round is still incomplete. The conflict between free trade on industrial goods and services
but retention of protectionism on farm subsidies to domestic agricultural sector (requested by
developed countries) and the substantiation of the international liberalization of fair trade on
agricultural products (requested by developing countries) remain the major obstacles. These
points of contention have hindered any progress to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the
Doha Development Round. As a result of this impasse, there have been an increasing number of
bilateral free trade agreements signed. As of July 2012, there are various negotiation groups in
the WTO system for the current agricultural trade negotiation which is in the condition of
stalemate. WTO's current Director-General is Pascal Lamy
The WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established
after World War II in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international
economic cooperation — notably the Bretton Woods institutions known as the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund. A comparable international institution for trade, named the
International Trade Organization was successfully negotiated. The ITO was to be a United
Nations specialized agency and would address not only trade barriers but other issues indirectly
related to trade, including employment, investment, restrictive business practices, and
commodity agreements. But the ITO treaty was not approved by the U.S. and a few other
signatories and never went into effect. In the absence of an international organization for
trade, the GATT would over the years "transform itself" into a de facto international
organization.
Uruguay Round: Well before GATT's 40th anniversary, its members concluded that the GATT
system was straining to adapt to a new globalizing world economy. In response to the problems
identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration (structural deficiencies, spill-over impacts of
certain countries' policies on world trade GATT could not manage etc.), the eighth GATT round
— known as the Uruguay Round — was launched in September 1986.
It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed: the talks were going to extend
the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property,
and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles; all the original GATT
articles were up for review. The Final Act concluding the Uruguay Round and officially
establishing the WTO regime was signed April 15, 1994, during the ministerial meeting at
Marrakesh, Morocco, and hence is known as the Marrakesh Agreement.
The agreements fall into a structure with six main parts:
The Agreement Establishing the WTO
Goods and investment — the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods including the
GATT 1994 and the Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS)
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