Whether It Really Helped Less-Developed Nations To Get Its Share In Essay

Whether It Really Helped Less-Developed Nations To Get Its Share In The International Trade - Essay Example Further there has been substantial reduction in average tariffs as evidenced by industrial nations under the auspices of the GATT that has minimised their average tariff to just 4.5% as of today from that of 15% in 1947.( Subramanian & Wei 2003:3). WTO is regarded to be an international organisation and not just an association of Western trading countries. It is a genuine multilateral organisation with official legal standing as a global institution and official diplomatic standing for its secretariat. Its exhaustive rules and its binding nature and automatic dispute settlement system that would confer it as one of the most lawful global organisations in the globe. WTO’s rules were flaunted as covering â€Å"international commerce† interpreted more widely than in the past, and it is not only dealing in trade in goods unlike its predecessor GATT but also covers the trade in services , investment , intellectual property , environmental and other economic issues now. WTO rules were chiefly of laissez-faire, assuring to enhance social welfare, standards of living and gross domestic product internationally and in each member nation. (Barton et al. 2006). According to Kee et al (2009), concrete evidence is available that there is a surge in national income through international trade. Many earlier research studies have found that nations that are more open seem to be prosperous. Romer (1999) study found that between 105 nations in 1985, there had been increased trade over GDP ratio that augments income per capita. Recent research by Chang et al, (2009) and Freund & Bolaky (2009) also confirm the earlier findings that trade liberalisation enhance the income of nations. (Vijil 2011:2). However, developing countries are vehemently denying that their economies never enjoyed any benefits due to trade liberalisation. Despite of WTO liberalisation, rich nations are still dominating the trade by offering subsidiaries to their farmers and for certain products. Thus ,this research essay will study in detail whether GATTS AND WTO- really helped less-developed nations to get its share in the international trade or not. WTO AND ITS IMPACT ON INTE RNATIONAL TRADE Immediately, after the Second World War, there had been rapid development of international commerce due to industrial revolution, and this has been a chief instrument to the ever increasing internationalisation of global economy. In the post-1945 era, international commerce has attained a rapid growth which is estimated at more than twice the rate of economic growth especially from the 1980s onwards, pushed by multilateral relaxation under consecutive General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which is famously known as GATT Rounds of trade negotiations. (Perdikis & Read 2005:1). A significant outcome to ever increasing freeing of international trade is that it is carried over as per the acknowledged rules framed under the aegis of the GATT and later the WTO (the World Trade Organisations). Both GATTS and WTO have a built in system to deal with international business disputes emanating between Member nations and to implement the accepted rules in an unbiased manner. (Pe rdikis & Read 2005:1). International trade was at its puppetry stage in the late 1980s due to the absence of dispute settlement mechanisms to find solutions to trade disputes. Further, liberalisation of trade is possible due to the extension of most-favoured nations (MFN) status to all