The World Trade Organisation or WTO has, since 1995, been the leading international organisation responsible for developing and monitoring free trade; while also policing trade violations (World Trade Organisation, 2003).
The WTO developed out of GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. GATT came into being after the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. It was advanced as a temporary structure for trade negotiations by USA president Harry Truman, after Congress withdrew form the International Trade Organisation or ITO talks. GATT became the primary organisation responsible for the liberalization of trade in 1948. (World Trade Organisation, 2003)
GATT was based on two basic principles that still govern the WTO today; they were reciprocity and non-discrimination (World Trade Organisation, 2003). All concessions would there be reciprocal, meaning all would be agreed or nothing would be agreed, this would discourage unilateral trade barriers because all nations would lower their barriers together.…
