Question

Importance of wto in today's global world

Answer 1

The impact of the information technology has been to highlight a fourth element in the process of globalization and make it typical of globalization in our times. This is financial capital invested in the capital market of emerging countries. It is true that in the earlier period of gradual globalization, finances were even invested but this was in the form of foreign direct investment in factories and enterprises in different countries. The integrated capital market is a unique feature of the 20th century and our current times. A corollary of the process of globalization and the impact of technology has been the impact of advances in communication especially through satellite broadcasts as well as other means of communications like fax, telephones and the internet. This freedom of communication has also led to a pressure especially on those governments which try to operate a controlled regime. The collapse of the Soviet Union from 1990 onwards and the conversion of many of the erstwhile communist countries to market dynamics can also be, among other things, traced to the era of information technology where policing the borders became more difficult in view of the reach of technology.

This, in turn, led to a greater pressure on the global trade front resulting finally in the end of the Uruguay round leading to the setting up of the WTO in 1995. One major impact of the WTO has been that the trade barriers must be brought down. Government of India is also now part of this general trend. After the permit license raj for nearly forty years, from 1991 due to factors beyond contract, the Government of India adopted policies which are more market friendly. We are still progressing perhaps in a gradual way with two steps forward and one step backward. But the fact remains that in certain infrastructure areas like telecommunications, changes have come to stay.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is among the most powerful and one of the most secretive international bodies on earth. It is rapidly assuming the role of global government, as 134 nation-states, including the U.S., have ceded to its vast authority and powers.

Answer 2

Though WTO is supposed to allow free trade for all in practice it is seen that the development countries have unfairly retained trade barriers.On the other hand WTO rules have forced the developing countries to remove trade barriers. An example of this is the current debate on trade in Agricultural Products.