An Introduction To the WTO Agreements (Trade & Development Issues & the World Trade Organization)

The World Trade Organization (WTO), the successor to GATT, is rapidly establishing itself as the third pillar of the Bretton Woods institutions alongside the World Bank and the IMF. The prolonged international negotiations which led to its establishment have produced a complex set of agreements which not only constitute the most profound revision of the rules governing world trade, but extend these rules into a range of issues and economic sectors not hitherto regarded as falling within its ambit. This book, by an author who was intimately involved in the Uruguay Round which led to the creation of the WTO, is an indispensable and concise explanation of what the WTO agreements actually provide for. It deals with the full range of technical provisions and issues, explaining where necessary the background, terms involved, and implications of the new provisions. Together with its companion volume which criticizes the Agreements from the point of the view of the developing countries, it provides public officials, NGO leaders and economists in general with an essential explanation of the new rules governing world trade.