WTO SUCCESSOR TO GATT

From GATT to WTO and Beyond

Developing Countries and the GATT/WTO

Developing countries, by definition, are countries that are less advanced or matured in major areas such as technology and defence, and also have a low Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, income and the quality of education. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which came into effect in January 1948 and transformed into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Ja...

The Evolution of GATT/WTO Dispute Settlement

Despite debuting to little fanfare under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), dispute settlement under the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been called the “backbone of the multilateral trading system.” Indeed, whereas GATT dispute settlement could scarcely have seemed more flawed, the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) is widely touted for boosting confidence in an in...

Unexpected Bedfellows: The GATT, the WTO and Some Democratic Rights1

The WTO system and democratic rights are unexpected bedfellows. The GATT ⁄WTO requires governments to adopt policies that provide foreign products (read producers) with due process, political participation, and information rights related to trade policymaking. Because these nations also provide these rights to their citizens, a growing number of people are learning how to influence trade-relate...

Institutions and Outcomes: the Gatt/wto and Postwar Trade

The abundant literature about institutions regards the postwar trade regime as its " beau ideal " (Goldstein, Rivers, and Tomz 2007a, 38). Yet, it was only five years ago that Andrew Rose published the first systematic empirical analysis of its effects. Contravening conventional wisdom, he found that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and its successor, the World Trade Organization, did...