Doha Round

Doha Round

Introduction

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established on January 1, 1995. Membership had increased from 128 original signatories to 148 countries by February 16, 2005. Its major aim is to ensure that trade between nations is as free as possible. The creation of the WTO was one of the key outcomes of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This represented the eventual realization of the intentions of the architects of the Bretton Woods System, which was to have an international trade organization working alongside the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. It was argued that the WTO would strengthen the multilateral trading system by remedying some of the weaknesses of the GATT. In particular, the WTO has improved the surveillance of trade policies, intensified the levels of consultation between member states, and resolved disputes in a more effective fashion (McGuirk, 2008).

Thesis Statement

The Doha Round of talks set a process of negotiations focused on a number of issues of concern to developing countries, in particular the continued subsidization of agricultural production in the advanced industrialized countries.

Discussion

The WTO implements trade liberalization by adhering to two key doctrines that were the foundations of the GATT. The first doctrine is the rule of reciprocity, whereby all of the member states agree to adhere to the most-favored nation principle. The second doctrine is the idea of nondiscrimination, which requires that a member country must treat imports in the same way as domestically produced goods and services in such areas as taxation, regulation, transportation, and distribution.

While the GATT was mostly concerned with the liberalization of trade in goods, the rules of the WTO have been extended to cover an increasing number of areas. These include trade in services and intellectual property rights—for example, patents and copyrights. One of the perceived disadvantages of the GATT was the lack of an effective mechanism for ensuring adherence to its rules (Ingco, 2004).

The WTO has created its Dispute Settlement Understanding that is considerably stronger. Member states are free to raise an objection, and initially they are encouraged to resolve such disputes through negotiation. However, if this fails, a panel is created, and the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism is employed, which can ultimately result in the authorization of retaliatory measures. There have been fears that this multilateral approach to resolving disputes is still open to distortion by the most powerful members via threats of unilateral action (Adhikari, 2002).

The Importance of Doha Round

One of the Ministerial Conferences, held in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, set out a process of negotiations focused on a number of issues of concern to developing countries, in particular the continued subsidization of agricultural production in the advanced industrialized countries. Second is the question of the democratic accountability of the WTO, with critics arguing that civil society organizations have insufficient input into the policy-making process. Third is the contentious issue of whether further trade liberalization will have a negative impact on the environment through its impact on ...