The World Trade Organization (WTO) Decision — Making Process: A Critique

The World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence in 1995 as the successor of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), which has operated provisionally since 1947. It is concerned with international economic policy co-operation. Hence, it provides a common institutional framework for the conduct of trade relations among its member states. ' The agreement establishing the WTO created a permanent forum for member governments to address issues affecting their multilateral trade relations as well as to supervise the implementation of the trade agreements negotiated in the Uruguay Round. Consequently, the WTO apart from being a permanent trade policy formulator that creates rules for world trade which are binding under International law, is also a guardian of the agreements. Thus, the WTO oversees the implementation, administration and operation of the multilateral trade agreements (i.e. GATT, General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Agreement on Trade — Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which are legally binding on the members and the plurilateral Trade Agreements which are effective at the plurilateral level for those WTO members that have signed the agreements.