World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization designed to supervise and liberalize international
trade. The WTO has 153 members, which represents more than 95% of total world trade. The WTO was created in 1995, as the
successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1947, and continued to operate for
almost five decades as a de facto international organization. The World Trade Organization deals with the rules of trade
between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in
charge of policing member countries' adherence to all the WTO agreements, signed by the majority of the world's trading
nations and ratified in their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations,
especially from the Uruguay Round. The organization is currently working with its members on a new trade negotiation called
the Doha Development Agenda (Doha round), which was launched in 2001.
The World Trade Organization at HMCE
At HMCE, delegates in the World Trade Organization will work on the world’s most important trade issues. As the international
arbiter of trade disputes, the WTO is in a unique position to affect trade. Delegates to the WTO will work together to figure
out how best to address intellectual property disputes, and they will then simulate an aspect of the Doha Development Round, discussing
agricultural trade and its impact on the environment.
For more details, see the 2009 Guide to the WTO.
2009 Staff and Topics
Committee Co-Chair:
Alexandra Courtis
Committee Co-Chair:
Riley Catlin
Topic 1:
Intellectual Property Rights (
Update)
Topic 2:
Trade and the Environment (
Update)
Committee message board:
http://hmce.activeboard.com
Relevant Links
Use the links below to research the WTO and the international trade agreements that it attempts to foster.