The World Trade Organization

A few resources when looking at the role of the WTO.

The WTO recently released their revised estimates for the growth in world trade for 2012, 2.5% (revised down from 3.7%), and 2013, 4.5% (revised down from 5.6%). This link to their website can be used to discuss the role the WTO plays in international trade. Thanks to Amanda Campion for this short video which is an excellent introduction to the history and objectives of the WTO: (a more detailed history from Bretton Woods to GATT to WTO is available here)

There are also plenty of examples of WTO cases in the news, most recently the complaint filed by America regarding subsidies, tax breaks and grants from the Chinese government to car manufacturers on the condition they export the car parts, which America claims was worth over $1bn. There is also the ongoing rare earths case filed against China that the WTO have been looking at for 6 months. There are plenty more interesting cases the students can get stuck in to, but details of one or two should be plenty enough to give an idea of how the WTO tackles these cases.

The critique of the WTO can be found from several areas and one must always be wary of anti-western journalism when looking at criticism of the WTO. This article from the Economist is very useful because it doesn't directly criticise the WTO but merely states that bilateral and multilateral trade agreements have done more to liberalise trade in recent years than the WTO has and that this is set to grow due to the much talked about Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and a three-way agreement between China, South Korea and Japan. This could be a useful starter for a discussion on the changing role of the WTO in 2012 and beyond.