Essentials of the WTO

　　Chapter 1 The Establishment and Operating System of the WTO
　　 1.1 The Establishment of the WTO
　　 1.1.1 The GATF years: from Havana to Marrakesh
　　 1.1.2 The Uruguay Round
　　 1.1.3 The post-Uruguay Round built-in agenda
　　 1.2 The Status, Purpose, Objectives and Functions of the WTO
　　 1.2.1 Status of the WTO
　　 1.2.2 The purpose of the WTO
　　 1.2.3 The objectives of the WTO
　　 1.2.4 The functions of the WTO
　　 1.2.5 Differences between GATF and WTO
　　 1.3 Scope of the WTO
　　 1.4 Structure of the WTO
　　 1.4.1 The Ministerial Conference
　　 1.4.2 The General Council iri three guises
　　 1.4.3 Councils for each broad area of trade, and more
　　 1.4.4 Committees
　　 1.4.5 Plurilateral Committee
　　 1.4.6 The Secretariat and director-general
　　 1.5 Decision-making of the WTO
　　 1.5.1 Decisions taken by consensus
　　 1.5.2 Levels of authority
　　 1.6 Membership of the WTO
　　 1.6.1 Original membership
　　 1.6.2 Accession to the WTO
　　 1.6.3 How to join the WTO: the accession process
　　 1.6.4 Withdrawal from the WTO
　　 1.7 Relationship with Other Main Organizations and Regionalism
　　 1.7.1 Summary on other organizations
　　 1.7.2 Relationship with regionalism
　　 Questions
　　 Notes
　　Chapter 2 Principles of the WTO
　　 2.1 Trade without Discrimination
　　 2.1.1 Most- favoured- nation (MFN)
　　 2.1.2 National treatment: treating foreigners and locals equally
　　 2.2 Freer Trade: Gradually, through Negotiation
　　 2.2.1 Trade barriers
　　 2.2.2 The result of negotiations
　　 2.3 Predictability: through Binding and Transparency
　　 2.3.1 Purpose of predictability
　　 2.3.2 Predictability through binding
　　 2.3.3 Predictability through transparency
　　 2.4 Promoting Fair Competition
　　 2.5 Encouraging Development and Economic Reform
　　 2.5.1 Contribution to developing countries in the WTO
　　 2.5.2 Commitment fulfilled by developing countries
　　 2.5.3 Measures to encourage development and economic reform
　　 Questions
　　 Notes
　　Chapter 3 The Agreements of the WTO
　　 3.1 Agreements for Trade in Goods
　　 3.1.1 Tariffs: more bindings and closer to zero
　　 3.1.2 Agriculture: fairer markets for farmers
　　 3.1.3 Standards and safety
　　 3.1.4 Textiles: back in the mainstream
　　 3.1.5 Anti-dumping, subsidies, safeguards: contingencies, etc
　　 3.1.6 Non-tariff barriers : red tape, etc
　　 3.1.7 Plurilaterals: of minority interest
　　 3.2 Agreement for Trade in Service
　　 3.2.1 The background for GATS
　　 3.2.2 Main content of GATS
　　 3.2.3 General obligations and disciplines
　　 3.2.4 The annexes: services are not all the same
　　 3.3 Agreement for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
　　 3.3.1 Scope of intellectual property
　　 3.3.2 International protection of intellectual property and TRIPS
　　 3.3.3 Summary on TRIPS
　　 Questions
　　 Notes
　　Chapter 4 The Policy Review and Settling Dispute
　　 4.1 Trade Policy Review
　　 4.1.1 Ways to keep trade policies transparent
　　 4.1.2 Trade Policy Review Body
　　 4.2 Settling Dispute
　　 4.2.1 Summary on dispute settlement mechanism
　　 4.2.2 Scope of jurisdiction of DSM
　　 4.2.3 WTO bodies involved in the dispute settlement process
　　 Questions
　　 Notes
　　Chapter 5 Developing Countries
　　 5.1 Overview
　　 5.1.1 In the agreements: more time, better terms
　　 5.1.2 Legal assistance: a secretariat service
　　 5.1.3 Least-developed countries: special focus
　　 5.1.4 A "maison"in Geneva: being present is important, but not easy for all
　　 5.2 Committees
　　 5.2.1 Trade and Development Committee
　　 5.2.2 Subcommittee on Least-Developed Countries
　　 5.2.3 The Doha agenda committees
　　 5.3 WTO Technical Cooperation
　　 5.3.1 Mission, objective and subjects
　　 5.3.2 Training, seminars and workshops
　　 5.4 Some Issues Raised
　　 5.4.1 Participation in the system: opportunities and concerns
　　 5.4.2 Erosion of preferences
　　 5.4.3 The ability to adapt: the supply-side
　　 Questions
　　 Notes
　　References
　　Appendix
　　 Appendix 1 Current WTO Members
　　 Appendix 2 Abbreviations
　　 Appendix 3 Glossary
　　 Appendix 4 Reading Materials