Umarov Sardor mm64 I World Trade Organization(wto)

Umarov Sardor MM64 i

World Trade Organization(WTO)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

The WTO has many roles: it operates a global system of trade rules, it acts as a forum for negotiating trade agreements, it settles trade disputes between its members and it supports the needs of developing countries. All major decisions are made by the WTO's member governments: either by ministers (who usually meet at least every two years) or by their ambassadors or delegates (who meet regularly in Geneva).A number of simple, fundamental principles form the foundation of the multilateral trading system.

The primary purpose of the WTO is to open trade for the benefit of all.The WTO's top decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference. Below this is the General Council and various other councils and committees.Ministerial conferences usually take place every two years.The General Council is the top day-to-day decision-making body. It meets a number of times a year in Geneva.The WTO has over 160 members representing 98 per cent of world trade. Over 20 countries are seeking to join the WTO.

To join the WTO, a government has to bring its economic and trade policies in line with WTO rules and negotiate its terms of entry with the WTO membership

The WTO derives most of the income for its annual budget from contributions by its Members. These are established according to a formula based on their share of international trade.Miscellaneous income is earned from rental fees and sales of WTO print and electronic publications. The WTO also manages a number of trust funds, which have been contributed by Members. These are used in support of special activities for technical cooperation and training meant to enable least-developed and developing countries to make better use of the WTO and draw greater benefit from the multilateral trading system.

The WTO works with a number of other international governmental organizations under the banner of “coherence”, a term originating in the “Decision on achieving greater coherence in global economic policy-making”, which ministers agreed in Marrakesh, April 1994. But coherence in global economic policy-making goes much beyond the WTO's formal and specific cooperation arrangements with the IMF and the World Bank. Indeed, it is now recognized that the WTO system is only one part of a much broader set of international rights and obligations that bind WTO Members. The WTO maintains extensive institutional relations with several other international organizations; there are some 140 international organisations that have observer status in WTO bodies. The WTO also participates as observer in the work of several international organizations. In all, the WTO Secretariat maintains working relations with almost 200 international organisations in activities ranging from statistics, research, standard-setting, and technical assistance and training. Although the extent of such cooperation varies, coordination and coherence between the work of the WTO and that of other international organizations continues to evolve so as to assist Members in the operation of their economic policies.

Uzbekistan also starts detailed study of consequences of joining the WTO. This stated at the first meeting of the Republican Interdepartmental Commission for work with the World Trade Organization. After constructive discussion, the commission approved a draft Memorandum on the foreign trade regime.

According to the statement of the PR-center of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, during the meeting, organizational and legal issues of negotiations on Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO were worked out.

At the meeting, they commissioned to draw up a detailed plan of the working groups activities on the assessment of the consequences of joining the WTO. Those of particular importance are questions of customs tariffs, state support and export subsidies in agriculture, illustrative issues in the framework of the major WTO agreements in field of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and intellectual property rights.From now on, seminars for employees of departments directly involved in legal and organizational procedures for joining the WTO will become permanent. Foreign experts will be asked to participate in them.

The WTO is the base of the international system in regulation of trade. The key task of this is the liberalization of world trade by provision of fair competition and regulation. One option could be bilateral negotiations with each trade partner, but this requires more funds, a serious problem for small countries. Moreover, bilateral negotiations may be less effective than negotiations in the WTO framework where small countries can create groups with other states with common interests.

At the present time Uzbekistan is negotiating to join the WTO taking into account its own specific circumstances. However there is a question of the balance between benefits and disadvantages, and this discussion is mostly founded on emotional and contradictory opinions.

An increase in the efficiency of production, access to full participation in trade dispute settlement mechanism, and protection against dumping claims will be positive aspects for the domestic enterprises. At the same time it is necessary to increase the capacity for listed possibilities use, as many countries that became WTO members are still suffering from anti-dumping measures. The WTO agreements and openness of the economy will promote the development of the domestic market for new technologies and will allow domestic producers to become competitive in the world market. It is very important for Uzbekistan not only to find its own role in these processes but to use its own competitive advantage most efficiently.