About the WTO

This introductory chapter outlines the development of the role of law and lawyers in the multilateral trading system from its birth in 1948 until today. It recounts the various ways that law and lawyers have been included (and sometimes excluded) first in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and then in the World Trade Organization (WTO) system. It traces the ways in which the GATT and WTO Secretariats have been structured and legal work has been distributed over time. It further seeks to uncover the various and complex historical processes and circumstances that have led the WTO to become one of the most important players in the development of international law and, according to many commentators, a prime example of the possibility and value of the international rule of law.

It was a demanding year for WTO dispute settlement in 2013, with adjudicating bodies examining 28 disputes on issues from green energy production to the banning of seal products. The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), which met 13 times, received 20 requests for consultations, the first stage in the dispute settlement process. Developing countries launched nine of the requests, with Latin America particularly active. The rising workload poses challenges for the WTO Secretariat. On a positive note, the WTO’s Digital Dispute Settlement Registry moved into its testing phase.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) figured prominently on the agenda of the Council for Trade in Services in 2011. Discussions focused on e-commerce and international mobile roaming. The council concluded the third review of most-favourednation (MFN) exemptions and continued its discussions of specific services sectors and modes of supply, on the basis of background notes produced by the WTO Secretariat.

En 2012, los negociadores siguieron tratando de desbloquear el Programa de Doha para el Desarrollo y realizaron ciertos progresos en varios ámbitos, en particular en la facilitación del comercio, la agricultura y la solución de diferencias.

I admire the achievements of panels and the Appellate Body, and of the unsung heroes who assist them behind the scenes. Over the past decade, they have succeeded in developing a coherent jurisprudence and in maintaining the support of the membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the dispute settlement system. However, when evaluating the performance of the WTO dispute settlement system, one should not only examine how panels and the Appellate Body handled the complaints that were actually submitted to them. An evaluation of that system is only complete if it comprises also an analysis of the complaints that Members did not bring. The focus of this chapter is on one feature of the WTO dispute settlement system that has prevented Members from resorting to that system to assert their rights in many situations.

During 2010 the Trade Policy Review Body (TPR B) reviewed 19 WTO members: Malaysia, El Salvador, Croatia, Armenia, Albania, the People’s Republic of China, Malawi, the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei), The Gambia, Honduras, the United States, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sri Lanka, Belize, Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Hong Kong, China. The Chair’s concluding remarks for these reviews are reproduced below.

In 2012, the General Council agreed that the Ninth Ministerial Conference will be held in Bali, Indonesia. It oversaw the progress of the Doha Round negotiations on the basis of reports from the Director-General in his capacity as Chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee. It heard the Director-General’s annual report on accessions and on the development assistance aspects of cotton. In July, it adopted recommendations on the accession of least-developed countries (LDCs) as mandated by the Eighth Ministerial Conference. It also reviewed progress in the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce.

In 2016, the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB) reviewed the trade policies and practices of 23 WTO members. By the end of 2016, the TPRB had conducted 452 reviews since its establishment in 1989, covering 153 of the 164 WTO members. During the year, members agreed further reforms to the trade policy review mechanism, including adjusting the frequency of undertaking trade policy reviews.

Trade monitoring reports showed a slight decrease in the number of new trade-restrictive measures introduced by WTO members. The WTO revised downwards its trade forecasts for 2016, predicting the slowest pace of trade and output growth since the financial crisis of 2009. The monitoring reports underscore the need for WTO members to work together to ensure that the benefits of trade are spread more widely and are better understood.

L’Accord de l’OMC sur les obstacles techniques au commerce (Accord OTC) est entré en vigueur au moment de la création de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce, le 1er janvier 1995. Il vise à faire en sorte que les prescriptions relatives aux produits figurant dans les réglementations et les normes (concernant la sécurité, la qualité, la santé, etc.), ainsi que les procédures d’évaluation de la conformité des produits avec ces prescriptions (essais, inspection, accréditation, etc.), ne soient pas indûment discriminatoires et/ou ne créent pas d’obstacles non nécessaires au commerce.

As Swiss writer Paul Budry observed, George Épitaux's building is extraordinary in its sobriety. The edifice avoids ostentatiousness, rather drawing strength through unity. He describes it as a "disciplined mass" united through the action of those working within its walls. The one notable departure from this moderation is the northern tower, reaching skyward like a lighthouse. The paradox of such a sleek building is that while it may appear simple, it requires an immense amount of forethought to execute such pure lines.

This chapter assesses the trade facilitation performance of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and determines the welfare and sectoral effects of trade facilitation improvements within the context of regional trade integration. It shows that introducing a trade facilitation provision in the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) will lead to a significant welfare increase for all MENA sub-regions compared with a scenario of further trade liberalization without trade facilitation. Trade facilitation in the GAFTA would enhance export competitiveness and lead to a significant increase in overall and intra-trade export value for all countries, but particularly for the Mashreq and Maghreb countries. In the analysis, all sub-regions witnessed an export boost in agro-food product exports, particularly those products in which the Mashreq and Maghreb countries have a comparative advantage. The welfare-enhancing results of this analysis indicate that the MENA region has a high stake in implementing the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA), and should begin with areas that contribute the most to trade cost reduction, such as automation and streamlining of trade procedures.

During 2010 the TRIPS Council reviewed intellectual property legislation in individual countries and discussed the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, TRIPS and public health, technical cooperation and capacity building and a number of other matters, in addition to the issues reported in the section on negotiations.

My work in the WTO as a professional educated in law and economics has been principally concerned with policy development and negotiations in less-established areas of WTO work, as opposed to dispute settlement or legal interpretation as such. It has had two main areas of focus: the interaction of trade and competition policy and international government procurement disciplines, although it has also touched on such disparate matters as the nature and determinants of economic development and the relationship of the organisation’s rules to human rights. It has been genuinely interdisciplinary in nature, involving the use of legal tools and analysis, economic insights, and policy improvisation in roughly equal measures. My years in the WTO have, perhaps, not always borne out Holmes’ dictum that ‘[t]he life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience’,1 though I have much sympathy with that viewpoint. They have, in any case, convinced me that empirical evidence is as important as logic in policy formulation; that progress in the formulation of international policies and legal disciplines will often be by fits and starts; and that the WTO and its rules have a noble mission and a huge contribution to make to human welfare, notwithstanding that the organisation’s role is frequently misunderstood and cannot be separated from broader economic, policy and political exigencies.

Building the trade capacity of developing countries through initiatives such as Aid for Trade was one of the major issues discussed by the Committee on Trade and Development in 2008. During the year, Aid for Trade focused on three clear priorities: Improving monitoring; accelerating implementation of projects; and strengthening developing-country ownership of the initiative. A total of 496 training activities were provided for government officials.

En 2011, le Groupe de travail du commerce, de la dette et des finances a aidé à remédier à certaines carences structurelles sur le marché du financement du commerce. En particulier, lors du Sommet de Séoul, le G-20 a demandé à l'OMC d'« évaluer et de surveiller » l'efficacité des programmes gérés par les banques multilatérales de développement afin de faciliter l'accès des pays à faible revenu au financement du commerce. Les travaux entrepris par l'OMC dans le domaine du financement du commerce ont bénéficié de l'interaction positive entre les Membres de l'OMC et le Groupe d'experts sur le financement du commerce convoqué par le Directeur général.

En 2011, le Comité du budget, des finances et de l'administration a examiné les propositions budgétaires pour la période biennale 2012-2013 pour l'OMC et le Centre du commerce international (ITC) et a étudié les questions relatives aux Membres ayant des arriérés de contributions importants, au projet de construction et aux ressources humaines.

The Ministerial Conference of the WTO, composed of representatives of all the Members, is the highest decision-making body of the organization, and is required to meet at least once every two years. Ministerial Conferences review ongoing work, provide political guidance and direction to that work, and set the agenda for further work as necessary.

En 2011, l'OMC a participé activement à la quatrième Conférence des Nations Unies sur les pays les moins avancés et a intensifié sa coopération avec diverses organisations intergouvernementales, dont l'Organisation des Nations Unies, l'Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE), l'Organisation internationale du travail (OIT), le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) et la Banque mondiale. L'OMC a publié des rapports sur l'évolution du commerce et de l'investissement dans les pays du Groupe des 20 (G-20), en collaboration avec la Conférence des Nations Unies sur le commerce et le développement (CNUCED) et l'OCDE.

The WTO began life on 1 January 1995 but its trading system is half a century older. Since 1948, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had provided the rules for the system. Whereas GATT had mainly dealt with trade in goods, the WTO and its agreements now cover trade in services, and in traded inventions, creations and designs (intellectual property).