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History Of The World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. The WTO deals with regulation of trade between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements, which is signed by representatives of member governmentsUnderstanding the WTO' Handbook at WTO official website. (Note that the document's printed folio numbers do not match the pdf page numbers.) and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986–1994). The World Trade Organization's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GAT ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plurilateral Agreement
A plurilateral agreement is a multi-national legal or trade agreement between countries. In the jargon of global economics, it is an agreement between more than two countries, but not a great many, which would be multilateral agreement. Use of the term in the World Trade Organization The term "plurilateral agreement" is used in the World Trade Organization. A plurilateral agreement implies that WTO member countries would be given the choice to agree to new rules on a voluntary basis. This contrasts with the multilateral WTO agreement, where all WTO members are party to the agreement. The Agreement on Government Procurement is typical plurilateral agreement. Plurilateral treaties A plurilateral treaty is a special type of multilateral treaty. A plurilateral treaty is a treaty between a limited number of states with a particular interest in the subject of the treaty. The primary difference between a plurilateral treaty and other multilateral treaties is that the availability of r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WTO Ministerial Conference Of 1998
The Second Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization was held in Geneva, Switzerland between 18 and 20 May 1998. References See also * Doha Declaration The Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health was adopted by the WTO Ministerial Conference of 2001 in Doha on November 14, 2001. It reaffirmed flexibility of TRIPS member states in circumventing patent rights for better access to es ... World Trade Organization ministerial conferences Diplomatic conferences in Switzerland 20th-century diplomatic conferences 1998 conferences 1998 in international relations History of Geneva 20th century in Geneva May 1998 events in Europe {{International-trade-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singapore Issues
The "Singapore issues" refers to four working groups set up during the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1996 in Singapore. These groups are tasked with these issues: transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation (customs issues), trade and investment, and trade and competition. These issues were pushed at successive Ministerials by the European Union, Japan and Korea, and opposed by most developing countries. The United States was lukewarm about the inclusion of these issues, indicating that it could accept some or all of them at various times, but preferring to focus on market access. This article is available to subscribers only. Disagreements between largely developed and developing economies prevented a resolution in these issues, despite repeated attempts to revisit them, notably during the 2003 Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, whereby no progress was made. Since, some progress has been achieved in the area of trade facilitation. In July ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WTO Ministerial Conference Of 1996
The World Trade Organization's Ministerial Conference of 1996 was held in Singapore on December 9 - December 13, 1996. The inaugural meeting for the organisation since its formation. The event was hosted by the government of Singapore at the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Suntec City. The conference established four permanent working groups, covering transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation (customs issues), trade and investment, and trade and competition. The purpose of the first of these groups was to conduct "a study on transparency in government procurement practices, taking into account national policies and, based on this study, to develop elements for inclusion in an appropriate agreement".WTO Report (2000) of the Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement to the General Council, (31 October 2000), cited in Kinsey, M. A.TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL CONSENSUS? Public Contract Law Journal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministerial Conference
The Ministerial Conference is the top decision making body of the World Trade Organization (WTO). There have been twelve ministerial conferences from 1996 to 2022, usually every two years. Ministerial conferences First ministerial conference The inaugural ministerial conference was held in Singapore in 1996. Its primary purpose was to initiate an international effort among global trading nations to overhaul the structure and mechanisms of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) while preserving the considerable progress and success achieved by that system since its inception in 1948. Disagreements, largely between developed and developing economies, emerged over four issues initiated by this conference; afterward, these were collectively referred to as the "Singapore issues". Second ministerial conference Was held in Geneva in Switzerland. Third ministerial conference The third conference in Seattle, United States ended in failure, with 1999 Seattle WTO protest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geneva Ministerial Conference 18-20 May 1998 (9305956531)
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated in the south west of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva. The city of Geneva () had a population 201,818 in 2019 (Jan. estimate) within its small municipal territory of , but the Canton of Geneva (the city and its closest Swiss suburbs and exurbs) had a population of 499,480 (Jan. 2019 estimate) over , and together with the suburbs and exurbs located in the canton of Vaud and in the French departments of Ain and Haute-Savoie the cross-border Geneva metropolitan area as officially defined by Eurostat, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agreement On Trade-Related Aspects Of Intellectual Property Rights
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations. TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990 and is administered by the WTO. The TRIPS agreement introduced intellectual property law into the multilateral trading system for the first time and remains the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property to date. In 2001, developing countries, concerned that developed countries were insisting on an overly narrow reading of TRIPS, initiated a round of talks that resulted in the Doha Declaration. The Doha declaration is a WTO statement that clarifies the scope of TRIPS, stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Agreement On Trade In Services
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which entered into force in January 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations. The treaty was created to extend the multilateral trading system to service sector, in the same way the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provides such a system for merchandise trade. All members of the WTO are parties to the GATS. The basic WTO principle of most favoured nation (MFN) applies to GATS as well. However, upon accession, members may introduce temporary exemptions to this rule. Historical background While the overall goal of GATS is to remove barriers to trade, members are free to choose which sectors are to be progressively "liberalised" (i.e. marketised and privatised); which mode of supply would apply to a particular sector; and to what extent that "liberalisation" will occur over a given period of time. Members' commitments are governed by a ratchet effect: commitment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Service (economics)
A service is an "(intangible) act or use for which a consumer, firm, or government is willing to pay." Examples include work done by barbers, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, banks, insurance companies, and so on. Public services are those that society (nation state, fiscal union or region) as a whole pays for. Using resources, skill, ingenuity, and experience, service providers benefit service consumers. Services may be defined as intangible acts or performances whereby the service provider provides value to the customer. Key characteristics Services have three key characteristics: Intangibility Services are by definition intangible. They are not manufactured, transported or stocked. One cannot store services for future use. They are produced and consumed simultaneously. Perishability Services are perishable in two regards: * Service-relevant resources, processes, and systems are assigned for service delivery during a specific period in time. If the service consumer does not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trade Related Investment Measures
The Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) are rules that are applicable to the domestic regulations a country applies to foreign investors, often as part of an industrial policy. The agreement, concluded in 1994, was negotiated under the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and came into force in 1995. The agreement was agreed upon by all members of the World Trade Organization. Trade-Related Investment Measures is one of the four principal legal agreements of the WTO trade treaty. TRIMs are rules that restrict preference of domestic firms and thereby enable international firms to operate more easily within foreign markets. Policies such as local content requirements and trade balancing rules that have traditionally been used to both promote the interests of domestic industries and combat restrictive business practices are now banned. Origin In the late 1980s, there was a significant increase in foreign direct investment acro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Good (economics)
In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying Product (business), product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and Service (economics), services, which are not transferable. A good is an "economic good" if it is useful to people but scarcity, scarce in relation to its demand so that human effort is required to obtain it.Samuelson, P. Anthony., Samuelson, W. (1980). Economics. 11th ed. / New York: McGraw-Hill. In contrast, free goods, such as air, are naturally in abundant supply and need no conscious effort to obtain them. Private goods are things owned by people, such as Television, televisions, living room furniture, wallets, cellular telephones, almost anything owned or used on a daily basis that is not food-related. A consumer good or "final good" is any item that is ultimately consumed, rather than used in the production of another good. For example, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
