Q.Write a detailed note on features, structure, objectives and functioning of WTO.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the global body that governs and promotes international trade. Its features: a permanent, member-driven, rule-based institution covering trade in goods, services and intellectual property. Its objectives: to promote free and fair trade by lowering trade barriers, ensure non-discrimination among members, and settle trade disputes. It functions by administering trade agreements, providing a forum for trade negotiations, resolving disputes, reviewing members' trade policies and cooperating with other global economic bodies. …

Note: The rationalised chapter does not spell out the WTO's structure; the following is the standard Business-Studies treatment. Within this chapter, the WTO appears as one of the forces that brought the world closer: the World Trade Organisation and the economic reforms carried out by governments boosted interaction and business relations among nations, sharply reducing obstacles to the movement of goods and people across borders and helping national economies become borderless — turning the planet into a "global village."

Features of the WTO

• A permanent international institution that governs trade relations among nations (successor to the earlier trade arrangement).
• Member-driven and rule-based — decisions are taken by member countries, and trade is conducted under an agreed set of rules.
• Wide coverage — it deals not only with trade in goods but also in services and in intellectual property.
• Multilateral — it provides a common framework binding on all its members.

Objectives of the WTO

• To promote free and fair trade by reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers among member countries.
• To ensure non-discrimination — members treat one another's trade fairly, without unjust favouritism.
• To raise standards of living, incomes and employment through the expansion of world trade.
• To ensure the optimum use of world resources and encourage balanced growth of trade.
• To help developing countries secure a fair share in the growth of international trade.

Structure of the WTO

• It functions as a member-based organisation in which member countries collectively take decisions.
• It provides the institutional framework and forum through which members negotiate and administer trade agreements and settle disputes. (The rationalised chapter does not give further organ-by-organ detail, so no additional specifics are asserted here.)

Functioning of the WTO

• Administering trade agreements — It oversees the implementation of the trade rules and agreements agreed among members.
• Forum for negotiations — It acts as a platform for trade negotiations among member countries to further liberalise and expand trade.
• Settling disputes — It provides a mechanism to resolve trade disputes between members in an orderly, rule-based way. …