Case Study 1: The World Trade Organization (WTO)

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case study on world trade organisation

  • Björn Alexander Lindemann 9  

Part of the book series: Ostasien im 21. Jahrhundert ((OSTAS))

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The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor of the WTO, was signed in 1947 and entered into force on January 1, 1948 on a provisional basis (Barton et al. 2008: 27-60; Lanoszka 2009: 17-76). Although officially only an international treaty, the GATT evolved into a “de facto world trade organization” (Hoekman 2002: 44) that provided a negotiating forum for its contracting parties and a set of rules for conducting international trade. The WTO, established on January 1, 1995, includes the GATT agreement and is a formal, rule-based international organization with numerous rules and obligations that generally apply to all its members.

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Björn Alexander Lindemann

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Lindemann, B. (2014). Case Study 1: The World Trade Organization (WTO). In: Cross-Strait Relations and International Organizations. Ostasien im 21. Jahrhundert. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-05527-1_4

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Published : 09 April 2014

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The case of the World Trade Organization

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JOHN H. JACKSON, The case of the World Trade Organization, International Affairs , Volume 84, Issue 3, May 2008, Pages 437–454, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2008.00716.x

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This article explores the relationship between power and rules within the context of international relations, utilizing as a case-study what is arguably the most powerful international juridical institution in the world today, the World Trade Organization (WTO). The author draws upon a number of his previous works on the subject of the WTO and its predecessor, the GATT, wending through such topics as: the way that political and diplomatic leaders improvized and filled in the gaps of international institutions when the original idea for an International Trade Organization (ITO) failed; the remarkably elaborate development of the particularly deep and rich WTO Dispute Settlement (DS) jurisprudence (over 60,000 pages); and the constant tension between the role of nation-state power and the power allocated to international institutions, apparently necessitated by the huge impact of ‘globalization’ and interdependency in world affairs (especially economic) today. Various specific issues and cases illustrate these tensions and allocations, including treaty interpretation techniques, the degree of deference towards the members’ government actions, the arguments about the appropriate role of the ‘adjudicators’, and the delicately sensitive approach of the DS system towards clashes of policy necessitating ‘balance’. Throughout, particular emphasis is laid upon the ‘rule oriented’ (‘more legalization’) approach of the WTO DS jurisprudence, both in reflection on the historical and current developments of that juridical system—from ‘power oriented’ to ‘rule oriented’—and also in the important roles regarding tensions between ‘sovereignty’ concepts and international rule needs.

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