W t o
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The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995 and has 160 member countries. It oversees international trade agreements and acts as a forum for trade negotiations and disputes. The WTO aims to promote open trade for the benefit of all. Key functions include administering trade agreements, monitoring trade policies, and providing technical assistance. Major agreements cover goods, services, intellectual property, agriculture, textiles and other areas. While WTO membership has benefited India through increased exports, it also faces challenges in agriculture and intellectual property that require domestic reforms and a leadership role in negotiations.
W t o
- 1. World Trade Organisation, TRIPs, WTO & India. Lt Abdul Azees Farook College India
- 2. FACT FILE • Location: Geneva, Switzerland Established: 1 January 1995 Created by: Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94) Membership: 160 countries on 26 june 2014 Budget: 197 million Swiss francs for 2013 Secretariat staff: 640 Head: Roberto Azevêdo (Director-General)
- 3. Functions: • Administering WTO trade agreements • Forum for trade negotiations • Handling trade disputes • Monitoring national trade policies • Technical assistance and training for developing countries • Cooperation with other international organizations
- 4. The Doha agenda • At the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001 WTO member governments agreed to launch new negotiations. The entire package is called the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). • The negotiations take place in the Trade Negotiations Committee and its subsidiaries, which are usually, either regular councils and committees meeting in “special sessions”, or specially-created negotiating groups. • The Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, in September 2003, was intended as a stock-taking meeting where members would agree on how to complete the rest of the negotiations. But the meeting was soured by discord on agricultural issues, including cotton, and ended in deadlock on the “Singapore issues”.
- 5. PRINCIPLES OF W T O • 1. Most-favoured-nation (MFN): treating other people equally • 2. National treatment: Treating foreigners and locals equally • 3. Freer trade: gradually, through negotiation • 4. Predictability: through binding and transparency • Promoting fair competition • Encouraging development and economic reform
- 6. trips • Types of intellectual property • The areas covered by the TRIPS Agreement • Copyright and related rights Trademarks, including service marks Geographical indications Industrial designs Patents Layout-designs (topographies) of integrated circuits Undisclosed information, including trade secrets
- 7. AoA • market access — various trade restrictions confronting imports • domestic support — subsidies and other programmes, including those that raise or guarantee farmgate prices and farmers’ incomes • export subsidies and other methods used to make exports artificially competitive.
- 8. Standards and safety • Article 20 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) allows governments to act on trade in order to protect human, animal or plant life or health, provided they do not discriminate or use this as disguised protectionism. It allows countries to set their own standards. But it also says regulations must be based on science. They should be applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health.
- 9. Textiles: back in the mainstream • Since 1995, the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) took over from the Mulltifibre Arrangement. By 1 January 2005, the sector was fully integrated into normal GATT rules. In particular, the quotas came to an end, and importing countries are no longer be able to discriminate between exporters. The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing no longer exists: it’s the only WTO agreement that had self-destruction built in.
- 10. The General Agreement on Trade in Services • Services represent the fastest growing sector of the global economy and account for two thirds of global output, one third of global employment and nearly 20% of global trade.
- 11. TRIPS AGREEMENT • The Agreement covers the following areas of IP: • Copyrights and Related rights (i.e. the rights of performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting organizations) • Trademarks (including service marks) • Geographical Indications (including appellations of origin) • Industrial Designs • Patents (including the protection of new varieties of plants) • Layout-designs of Integrated Circuits • Undisclosed Information (including Trade Secrets and Test Data)
- 12. COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS • Copyright protects literary works and other forms of works that constitute expression of ideas. Term of protection for copyright is not less than up to 50 years from date of end of calendar year of making of such a work.
- 13. TRADEMARK • Any sign, or any combination of signs, capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings, is called a trademark. Such signs, in particular words including personal names, letters, numerals, figurative elements and combinations of colors as well as any combination of such signs, are eligible for registration as trademarks. For initial registration, and each renewal of registration of a trademark a term of protection is no less than seven years. The registration of a trademark is renewable indefinitely.
- 14. GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS • Geographical Indications are used to protect those goods whose quality, reputation or other characteristics are essentially because of their geographical origin. • Under the provisions of the Agreement, a member nation can prohibit other member nations from the use of any designation or presentation of any goods that indicates or suggests that those goods originate from a geographical area other than the true place of origin in a manner which misleads the public. The term of protection for Geographical Indication is eternal.
- 15. PATENTS • Any invention whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. • The term of protection available is usually twenty years counted from the filing date of the patent application.
- 16. INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS • Member nations have to provide for the protection of independently created industrial designs that are new or original. Member nations may provide that designs are not new or original if they do not significantly differ from known designs or combinations of known design features. The term of protection for industrial designs is 10 years from the creation of the industrial design.
- 17. PROTECTION OF UNDISCLOSED INFORMATION • Also known as trade secret. • It is secret in the sense that it is not generally known among or readily accessible to persons within the circles that normally deal with the kind of information in question; • It has commercial value because it is secret; and • It has been subject to reasonable steps under the circumstances, by the person lawfully in control of the information, to keep it secret.
- 18. Institutional mechanism • The Council for TRIPS monitors implementation of the Agreement. Also the council for TRIPS monitors member nations’ compliance with the obligations required under the Agreement. The council for TRIPS affords member nations the opportunity of consulting on matters relating to TRIPS. It also carries out other responsibilities assigned to it by the member nations, and provides any assistance requested by them in the context of dispute settlement procedures.
- 19. Barriers to trade • Govt placed restrictions on trade. Most barriers work on the same principle that impose some sort of cost on trade that raises the price of the products. Experts agrees on trade barriers only on two grounds ie health and national security. It can be of two kinds. • Tariff barrier • Non tariff barrier
- 20. tariffs • Taxes levied on pdts traded across borders.govts impose tariffs essentially on imports than exports.large source of govt revenue.may be two kinds • Advelorem duty( %) &specific duty. • Tariifs may be levied to earn money or to protect the economy.
- 21. Non tariff barriers • Include al the rules, regulationa and bureaucratic delays. It includes • Quotas • Embargo(most extreme) • Subsidies • Local content requirement • Voluntary export restraint • Technical barriers • Procurement policies • Exchange controls
- 22. W t o structure • The WTO members, accounts for about 95% of world trade. Around 30 are negotiating members. • Decisions are made by the entire membership. This is typically by consensus. The WTO’s agreements have been ratified in all members’ parliaments. • The WTO’s top level decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference which meets at least once every two years. • Below this is the General Council meets several times a year in the Geneva . The General Council also meets as the Trade Policy Review Body and the Dispute Settlement Body. • At the next level, the Goods Council, Services Council and Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Council report to the General Council. • Numerous specialized committees, working groups and working parties deal with the individual agreements and other areas such as the environment, development, membership applications and regional trade agreements.
- 23. BENEFITS OF WTO • 1. The system helps promote peace • 2. Disputes are handled constructively • 3. Rules make life easier for all • 4. Freer trade cuts the costs of living • 5. It provides more choice of products and qualities • 6. Trade raises incomes • 7. Trade stimulates economic growth • 8. The basic principles make life more efficient • 9. Governments are shielded from lobbying • 10. The system encourages good government
- 24. MINISTERIAL CONFERENCES • The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. • The inaugural ministerial conference Singapore in 1996. • The second ministerial conference in Geneva. • The third conference in Seattle, Washington ended in failure. • The fourth ministerial conference was held in Doha. • The fifth ministerial conference was held in Cancún • The sixth WTO ministerial conference n Hong Kong 2005.
- 25. W t o and India • WTO has had a positive impact on Indian economy as it has led to the increase in export earnings. It has also led to merchandise and service exports. One of the negative impact is the protection of intellectual property rights abuse by some companies in India as under Indian Patent act, 1970 only process patents are granted to chemicals, drugs and medicines. •
- 26. W T O and India • Agricultural problems • A strategy to address this challenge shall necessarily involve re-orientation and injection of market linked dynamism in Indian agricultural R&D, strengthening of supportive institutions to serve the resource poor farmers, and steering fast the change with appropriate policies and trained human ware.
- 27. Pros • Clothing, agriculture, forestry, fishery, beverages advances according to GATT • Removal of MFA in………. • Lesser agricultural subsidies will increase agricultural export • Antidumping, safeguards, technical stds, dispute settlement etc
- 28. Cons • TRIPs agreement • Foreign companies and patent ownership • Farmers concern in subsidy front • TRIMs and technology import • Backward service oriented companies and chance for foreign domination
- 29. suggestions • India needs to devise appropriate domestic policies (extensive domestic market reforms, heavy investment in building and maintaining infrastructure, etc.) to improve efficiency and competitiveness of domestic produce. • It should continue to play leadership role in negotiating agreements of other developing countries with similar interest. • strengthen Indian agriculture to face increasing trade liberalization and globalization. • Export of high value products, horticulture products, processed products, marine products and rice should be promoted. • India has to counter the challenges in the export of traditional items from the developing countries. In this regard, prioritization, enhancing production and processing efficiency, marketing and transport infrastructure, maintaining quality, stable supply etc. need immediate attention.