International Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

International Business - Assignment Example The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a post-war establishment, which was primarily set up as an attempt to liberalize world trade. Prior to this, trade settlements were conducted by International Trade Organization (ITO) and then by GATT. The end of Uruguay Round in 1994 led to establishment of WTO and this was a major departure from GATT on two main grounds. The first was inclusion of better dispute settlement measure in order to promote international cooperation and the second was inclusion of agriculture and services in the agreements to mainly promote progress of the developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of WTO in promoting economic development among nations. The system operates in the gamut of multilateral trade agreements to contribute to economic development and employment for all its member nations. The organization has its headquarters in Geneva with 159 member countries. China was one of the last countries to have joined WTO, which had significant impacts on the entire global trade (Faizel, 2005). One of the primary focus of WTO since its inception has been the promotion of free and fair trade through multilateral negotiations. The WTO involves all its member countries in the decision making process to ensure that outcomes from the agreements are fair for all. The economic rationale behind this idea is that international trade has a major role in alleviation of poverty. The WTO has realized that least-developed countries are the most vulnerable ones and therefore, commits to increase their participation in the multilateral trading system, thereby assigning equal importance to these countries (Klug, 2006). The task undertaken by WTO is a very complex one because its member countries have different political, legal and economical status. This means that developed countries are in a better position