The past, present and future of WTO

Introduction: the world trade organization was founded in 1995 It replaced the GATT established at the end of World War II and is one of the youngest international institutions in the world Although the WTO is young, the multilateral trade system established since GATT has a history of 50 years On May 19, 1998, it celebrated its 50th anniversary in Geneva Many government leaders participated in the celebration The past 50 years have witnessed rapid growth of world trade, with commodity trade growing at an average rate of 6% per year In 1997, the total volume of trade reached 14 times that of 1950 With the efforts of GATT and WTO, a strong and prosperous world trade system is experiencing unprecedented growth The uXg system is gradually developed through a series of trade round negotiations organized by GATT The first round of negotiations focused on tariff reduction, and the following negotiations further covered more areas, such as anti-dumping and non-tariff measures The latest round of negotiations, namely the Uruguay round of negotiations in 1986-1994, led to the emergence of WTO The uXg talks have not ended, and some are continuing after the Uruguay round In February 1997, 69 governments further reached an agreement on telecommunications services on the basis of the Uruguay round, agreeing to take broader liberalization measures In the same year, 40 governments successfully completed the negotiations on zero tariff trade of information technology products, and 70 member countries also reached agreements on financial services, covering more than 95% of banking, insurance, securities and financial information trade At the Ministerial Conference of uXg held in Geneva in May 1998, WTO members agreed to study the trade problems caused by global e-commerce activities In 2000, there will be new discussions on agriculture, services and possibly other areas UxG