What is the
World Trade Organization (WTO)_


What is the WTO_

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WTO and the Environment

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When the WTO was created, concerned citizens and public interest organizations warned that the combination of the WTO's pro-industry rules and powerful enforcement would pose a threat to laws designed to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. Almost five years later, there is a clear record: the cases settled under WTO rules show the WTO's bias against the public interest.

 

Established January 1, 1995
Origins: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94) converted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the WTO
Mission: Promotes a free-market international trade system through a set of binding rules
Membership: 134 countries
Secretariat staff: 500
General Director: Mike Moore
Functions: Administration of WTO trade agreements; forum for international trade negotiations; and proceedings and panels for resolving trade disputes between member nations

 

The WTO promotes trade by:

  1. 1. Reducing tariffs

  2. 2. Prohibiting import and export bans and quotas

  3. 3. Eliminating discrimination against foreign products and services through its most-favored nation and national treatment principles, which prohibit treating "like products" differently based on how they are produced, and

  4. 4. Eliminating other impediments to trade, commonly called "non-tariff trade barriers."

    The trade rules define virtually all obstacles to trade as unfair trade barriers, even if the measures are designed to protect the environment, human rights, or labor rights. The WTO authorizes one country to challenge another country's laws before panels of trade experts operating in secret. If a law is found to be an unfair trade barrier, the WTO can authorize imposition of trade sanctions to force a change in the law.

    While the WTO has exceptions for conserving natural resources and for protecting human health, the regulating country bears the burden of proving that the exception applies. These exceptions have so many conditions and prerequisites that it is extremely difficult for any domestic protection to pass muster.

    The following easy-to-read booklet will tell you everything you need to get a first grhtml of the WTO. Learn more about how the WTO affects the environment, workers, agriculture, and services.

    A Citizen's Guide to the World Trade Organization
    (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 to view this page)

    For more detailed information about the effects of the WTO on the environment, see this document:

    The World Trade Organization's Threat to the Environment

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