Before 2000, the buzzword ‘WTO’ was less understood. The primordial concern of tariff reduction was somehow nondescript to people. It was, perhaps, in the later concept of the governments’ uses of ‘non-tariff barriers to trade’ that got the WTO much press.

The WTO has been controversial in such areas as anti-dumping measures, environmental and safety regulations, humanitarian sanctions against a country’s products, and restrictions on foreign investment. The organization’s Dispute Resolution Panel is a powerful body that has far-reaching and overarching sanctioning powers over its member countries. To say that the WTO is one body that ensures compliance is an understatement. It is said that ‘no other international body has such strong enforcement capabilities.’

The Seattle meetings, meant to ‘produce an agenda for a new “Millennial Round” of negotiations,’ actually revolved around the WTO’s plans to expand its mandate over ‘a wider range of goods and services, including financial investments, education, and health care.’

Since its inception, the WTO has always been meant to promote the purported glory of free trade and trade globalization. In this time of debilitating global economic crisis that has spawned protectionist attitudes among countries, the WTO faces a tougher task to inform and educate the world on the benefits of global free trade. The recession may just be the multilateral trading system’s biggest stumbling block to date.

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Via fibre2fashion.com/The Washington Post