🌐 Introduction to World Trade Organisation (WTO)

📘 Uruguay Round and WTO

📍 The Uruguay Round began in 1986 under General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and eventually led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.
📍 India became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 1995.
📍 After 10 years of deadlock, European Union (EU) is ready to negotiate with India in WTO on Public Stockholding Norms

🌐 WTO Facts

🔹 The WTO is a permanent institution with its own secretariat based in Geneva. This is a key difference from GATT, which was a provisional agreement without a permanent organization.
🔹 The WTO covers not only trade in goods but also trade in services (GATS) and trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), expanding its scope beyond GATT.
🔹 The WTO dispute settlement system is known to be faster, more automatic, and less vulnerable to blockages compared to the GATT system, improving enforcement of trade rules.
🔹 The agreements constituting the WTO are mostly multilateral. Multilateral agreements require commitments from all members.
🔹 The WTO replaced GATT with a broader and more robust organization, and is not just a simple extension of GATT.