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The economists Harry Dexter White (left) and John Maynard Keynes (right) at the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire [27]. The WTO precursor, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established by a multilateral treaty of 23 countries in 1947 after the end of World War II, in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international economic cooperation—such ...
One of the most significant changes was the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The 76 existing GATT members and the European Communities became the founding members of the WTO on 1 January 1995. The other 51 GATT members rejoined the WTO in the following two years (the last being Congo in 1997). Since the founding of the WTO, 33 ...
1986-1994 - GATT negotiations culminate in the Marrakech Agreement that establishes the World Trade Organization (WTO). January 1, 1995 - The WTO comes into existence. May 1, 1995 - Renato Ruggiero becomes director-general for a 4-year term. December 9, 1996 – December 13, 1996 - The inaugural ministerial conference takes place in Singapore.
The GATT was the only multilateral instrument governing international trade from 1946 until the WTO was established on 1 January 1995. [9] Despite attempts in the mid-1950s and 1960s to create some form of institutional mechanism for international trade, the GATT continued to operate for almost half a century as a semi-institutionalized multilateral treaty regime on a provisional basis. [10]
[16] [18] China and Liberia have since acceded to the WTO. The remaining WTO members acceded after first becoming WTO observers and negotiating membership. The 27 states of the European Union are dually represented, as the EU is a full member of the organization. Other autonomous entities are eligible for full membership in the WTO provided ...
China aimed to be included as a WTO founding member (which would validate it as a world economic power) but this attempt was thwarted because the United States, European countries, and Japan requested that China first reform various tariff policies, including tariff reductions, open markets and industrial policies.
South Korea was a founding member but left the Group after joining the OECD in 1996. Yugoslavia was a founding member; by the late 1990s, it was still listed on the membership list, but it was noted that it "cannot participate in the activities of G77." It was removed from the list in late 2003.
Doha Round talks are overseen by the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), whose chair is the WTO’s director-general, currently Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.The negotiations are being held in five working groups and in other existing bodies of the WTO.