Talk:General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/Archives/2016

Dr. Chang's comment on this article

Dr. Chang has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:

1. GATT held a total of nine rounds,

--> GATT held a total of eight rounds; WTO holds the current Doha round.

2. It was the most ambitious round to date, hoping to expand the competence of the GATT

--> It was the most ambitious round under GATT, hoping to expand the competence of the GATT

3. Since the founding of the WTO, 21 new non-GATT members have joined and 29 are currently negotiating membership. There are a total of 161 member countries in the WTO, with Laos and Tajikistan being new members as of 2013.

--> Yemen joined WTO on 26 June 2014. There are a total of 162 member countries now.

4. WTO arrangements are generally a multilateral agreement settlement mechanism of GATT.[10]

--> I don't understand what this sentence means

(I add some of my own lecture notes comparing WTO and GATT below)

The WTO is a full-edged international organization with its headquarter in Geneva, whereas the GATT started as a system of trade accords not intended as a permanent framework or structure

The scope of the WTO is much wider, including the treaty GATT 1947 and all the agreements reached under the Uruguay Round

The WTO has stronger enforcement power: If the WTO rules against a member country in a trade dispute, the rulings and enforcement recommendations are automatically adopted and legally binding, whereas they may be blocked or stalled under GATT

5. Bali Package signed on the 7th December 2013.

--> Could be appended with the development at the latest ministerial meeting of WTO in

Nairobi, 15-19 December, 2015: Developed members to remove export subsidies immediately, and developing countries will do so by 2018.

Major exporters of IT products agreed to eliminate tariffs by 2019 on 201 IT products valued at over $1.3 trillion per year.

(https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news15_e/mc10_19dec15_e.htm)

We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

Dr. Chang has published scholarly research which seems to be relevant to this Wikipedia article:

• Reference : Pao-Li Chang & Myoung-Jae Lee, 2007. "The WTO Trade Effect," Working Papers 06-2007, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 10:45, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

Add Section Discussing Controversy

The US Reform Party wants to 'rescind GATT for a new fair agreement'. I am seeking to learn why, and was disappointed that there is no discussion of problems or controversy with this agreement, unlike Wikipedia's NAFTA article. -- Newagelink (talk) 00:21, 27 September 2016 (UTC)