What Is the Principle Cause of the Current Crisis in the World Trade Organisation? What Does Your Diagnosis Imply for How We Understand the Causes of Economic Cooperation?

 Question: What is the principle cause of the current crisis in the World Trade Organisation? What does your diagnosis imply for how we understand the causes of economic cooperation?

In my essay, I will answer the question on the principle cause of the current crisis in the World Trade Organisation and how this implies to how we understand the causes of economic cooperation. According to Hoekman, Mattoo, and English (2002), the World Trade Organisation is an international organisation that focuses on resolving trade-related issues and work towards achieving economic development for less fortunate countries. To answer the question, I will discuss the overview of the World Trade Organisation, the principles of the World Trade Organisation, the principal causes of the current crises in the World Trade Organisation, and how we understand the causes of economic cooperation in regards to this crisis. This essay will argue that although the World Trade Organisation has had a positive impact on how the world trading system should be governed, there are some weaknesses in the major areas that needs urgent attention.

The overview of the World Trade Organisation

The World Trade Organisation is an international organisation that focuses on resolving trade-related issues (Hoekman et al.2002). According to Sampson (2001), the World Trade Organisation was established in January 1995 in replacement of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Moreover, as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations, this organisation were formed as a multilateral organisation, one that will change the way the international trading system is governed. According to Narlikar (2005), the World Trade Organisation is consists of 128 memberships and it was considered as an organisation of “Grand Bargain”. However, the World Trade Organisation is comprised of series of agreements. These agreements are: “The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade” (GATT), “General Agreement on Trade in Services” (GATS), and the agreement of “Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Right” (TRIPS). Moreover, each of these agreements set the rules that govern the international trading system (Ravenhill 2014). For this essay, the structure of the World Trade Organisation is divided into four sections. Firstly, it serves as a forum for resolving trade-related issues (Narlikar, Daunton and Stern 2012). However, this gives members the opportunity to present their problems to the forum and find possible ways to resolve those issues. Secondly, it provides a broad range of multilateral rules that govern policies for both trade and property. However, the law on trade is the “Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM)”, a system that monitors and assesses trade rules created by members and the World Trade Organisation officials. Moreover, the policy that related to property is the “Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)”, an agreement that serves as a protection for intellectual property (Ravenhill 2014). Thirdly, it acts as a forum for negotiations, one that negotiates on matters that relates to trade. Lastly, it stresses on development especially for developing and under developed countries (Ravenhill 2014).