8/7/2019 Analyse the Roles Played by the World Trade Organization

1/2

Moamenah DQ4

World Trade Organization (WTO) The world trade organization (WTO) is an international organization that deals with the rules

of trades between member countries.(Shenkar, Luo,2008)

- "The first role is the elimination of discrimination. The elimination is done by two

regulations. The first one is most-favored-nation treatment which means that all

member countries receive the advantages granted to one of the countries. The

second one is the national treatment means to clear custom between members and

their goods will be treated as domestic goods.

- The second role is to combat various forms of protection and trade barriers, such as

antidumping barriers, import deposit without interest, customs valuation, excise

duties, subsidies, and countervailing duty.

- The third role is to provide a forum for dealing with emerging issues, such as

intellectual property, environment, economic development or regional agreements.

- The final role is to unite dispute-settlement systems for members through (DSB)."

(Shenkar, Luo,2008) (WTO, n.d.)

There are some arguments against (WTO) illustrated by (Young, A. 2005) such as, "By the

WTO regulation there is a threat in environment and health. The other argument is about

the impact of the WTO on domestic regulation by discouraging the adoption of new rules." I

do not totally agree with these arguments as one the third function is to provide a forum

concerning the environment and health along with other issues such as intellectual property

and regional agreements. The other argument illustrated by (Shenkar, Luo,2008)" is that

WTO is viewed as the club of rich nation and that it favors developed nations in their

regulations over the developing nations"This argument is totally accurate as I find China is

the best example as it flourished with the joining of WTO and the entrance on MNEs there.

Also the antidumping rules protect the emerging economies from the dumping factor.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The objectives of (IMF) are to "foster global monetary cooperation, financial stability,

international trade facilitation, high employment promotions, economic growth and reduce

growth."(IMF, n.d.)

To accomplish these objectives the role of IMF is according to (Shenkar, Luo,2008) "to

promote exchange stability, maintain orderly exchange arrangements, avoid competitive

exchange depreciation, and providing general resources of funding for nations facing crisis."

8/7/2019 Analyse the Roles Played by the World Trade Organization

2/2

World Bank Group

The common objective of the World Bank Group is "to provide financial and technical

assistance of developing nations from developed countries." This assistance could be also

through sharing knowledge and facilitating resources in order to reduce poverty and improve

the quality of life. It is similar to the idea of GCC as Saudi Arabia recently funded Oman with 2

billion riyals in order to improve its economy and avoid any disturbance that may affects the

security and financial stability of the region.

Conclusion:

Because of the un-avoiding fact of globalization as it became the trend of the modern

business, the world became more interconnected with each other and any problem happens

to a nation will affect the rest of the world. Because of this fact, the foundation of WTO, IMF

and the World Bank Group became necessary in order to organize the business and financial

relationships between nations even though there are some arguments that it favors

developed nation over the developing nation. I believe that the main objectives of these

organizations, especially the IMF and the World Bank Group are to facilitate and aid the

developing nations. The bargaining power of the developed nations gave an advantage to

them in the WTO but this can be reduced by honoring past commitments of the developed

nations in the WTO. The hostility argued before is not justified that is why the is a continuous

forum in order to resolve any emerging issues as explained earlier.

References:

Shenkar, O. &Luo, Y. (2007) International business. 2n d ed. Thousand Oaks,CA:Sage Publications.

Young, A (2005) Picking the Wrong Fight: Why Attackson the World TradeOrganizationPose the Real Threat to NationalEnvironmental and PublicHealthProtection

WTO (n.d.) What is the WTO?[Online], available on:

http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm#caution(accessed March

26, 2011)

IMF (n.d.) About the IMF.[Online], available on:http://www.imf.org/external/about.htm(accessed March 26, 2011)

The World Bank (n.d.) About Us.[Online], available on:

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/0,,pagePK:50004410~piPK:366

02~theSitePK:29708,00.html(accessed March 26, 2011)