Acerca de la OMC

On 15-17 September, the WTO hosted the 2010 Public Forum on ‘The Forces Shaping World Trade’ at its headquarters in Geneva. Against the backdrop of the global economic and financial crisis, yet also looking to the future, the Forum provided a unique opportunity for relevant stakeholders to take stock of the latest developments at the global level that are having an impact on the multilateral trading system, and to identify steps that will contribute towards bolstering international trade flows and strengthening the WTO.

En 2012, el número de Miembros de la OMC asce`ndió a 157 tras la adhesión de Montenegro, Rusia, Samoa y Vanuatu. El Consejo General también aprobó la adhesión de la RDP Lao y de Tayikistán, lo que allanó el camino para su ingreso en la Organización a principios de 2013. Los Miembros de la OMC siguieron tratando de desbloquear las negociaciones de la Ronda de Doha y expresaron unánimemente su voluntad de lograr un resultado positivo en la Novena Conferencia Ministerial, que se celebraría en Bali (Indonesia) del 3 al 6 de diciembre de 2013.

The year 1998 marks five decades of the multilateral trading system. For 50 years, the GATT and now the WTO have provided the framework for the conduct of trade relations in a world of growing complexity and interdependence – a world where trade has increased seventeen-fold since the founding of the system and foreign direct investment has grown five-fold in the last decade alone. At the same time, the forces of globalization have brought extraordinary new opportunities. It is true, of course, that the upward trend in world output and trade has not been even or uninterrupted throughout the post-war period. Indeed, there have been times of difficulty and disruption, posing serious challenges for policy makers. The current economic crisis, affecting much of Asia and Russia, and exerting pressure on the economies of many other countries in different regions, constitutes one of the most challenging sets of circumstances to have confronted the world economy in many decades. The financial crisis in South-East Asia, the recession in Japan, slower growth in Asia more generally, as well as in various countries in other regions, and the economic crisis in Russia, have combined to create economic conditions in which the global economy could enter a period of contraction. If judicious policies are brought to bear, however, calming the fears of investors and restoring stability in the financial sector, there is a good chance that while the world economy will suffer slower growth, accompanied by a painful adjustment process in some countries, a deep global depression is avoidable.

Au cours des quatre sessions formelles qu'il a tenues en 2010, le Conseil du commerce des marchandises a examiné diverses demandes de dérogation présentées par des Membres de l'OMC ainsi que des préoccupations commerciales soulevées par certains Membres au sujet de mesures appliquées par d'autres Membres et s'est aussi occupé d'autres tâches courantes.

The WTO’s monitoring of world trade is conducted through trade policy reviews of individual members and global reviews of the entire membership. Over 400 trade policy reviews have been undertaken since the WTO was established. These reviews allow an open exchange of information between trading partners, helping to guard against protectionism and to encourage members to adhere to WTO rules.

Since the establishment of the WTO on 1 January 1995, no less than 23 States and separate customs territories have joined the multilateral trading system through the procedures of Article XII of the Marrakesh Agreement. These represent a range of economies, from global players to important emerging and transition economies and least-developed countries. A relatively large number are at various stages of the accession process. A certain limited number have still to take the decision to seek WTO membership.

As we mark the 20th anniversary of the WTO, it seems appropriate that we should put a spotlight on the TRIPS Agreement which also turns 20 this year. When the TRIPS Agreement came into being in 1995, it introduced substantive and comprehensive disciplines on intellectual property rights (IPRs) into the multilateral trading system.

El Portal Integrado de Información Comercial (I-TIP) de la OMC se puso en marcha a principios de 2013 con datos relativos al comercio de mercancías e información sobre los acuerdos comerciales regionales y los compromisos contraídos en el marco de la adhesión a la OMC. Posteriormente se amplió, en un proyecto conjunto con el Banco Mundial, para incluir el comercio de servicios. La OMC profundizó su cooperación internacional en la esfera de las estadísticas comerciales con organizaciones como la UNCTAD y el ITC. La OCDE y la OMC han creado una base de datos conjunta sobre el comercio medido en términos de valor añadido.

More than once, I have written on my personal experiences as a member of the Appellate Body. I did this for the first time a few months after the end of my WTO mandate in December 2001, while I was still teaching at the Robert Schumann Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. In writing this contribution, more than a decade later, I do not want to change anything with respect to these earlier insights. They seem to me to be as valid today as they were when I was still closer to the extraordinary experience of six years ‘on the bench’ of the Appellate Body, the most productive and efficient quasi-judicial economic dispute settlement organism in the world.