The WTO was formed during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariees and Trade (GATT) and codified in the signing of the “Marrakesh Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.” The WTO was to replace GATT’s informal negotiating role with a permanent organization to implement and promote international trade practices. The WTO has the authority to enforce trade agreements, oversee disputes and provide an international legal framework for trade. The rules of the WTO are legally binding on all member states. The scope of the WTO is far greater than GATT and includes trade in services and intellectual property. The headquarters of the WTO were established in Geneva, Switzerland, and came into operation on January 1, 1995. The 128 nations of GATT became members and by 2000 the WTO had 136 members, with others, including China and Russia, applying for membership. The United States approved China’s entry in 2000, China was admitted in late 2001. The WTO is headed by a biennial Ministerial Conference, in which each country has one equal vote. There is a director-general, who heads the Secretariat, and a General Council, composed of representatives of each member state, which meets as required to take action on issues brought forward by either the Trade Policy Review Body or the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).
The WTO has attracted a great deal of attention in the fierce debate over globalization. Supporters point to the achievement of free-trade policies and the extension of the global economy. Critics cite the great disparities in global wealth and argue that the WTO disproportionately favors the wealthiest nations. Furthermore, critics on the right, such as Patrick J. Buchanan, have charged that the WTO infringes on the national sovereignty of the United States. The United States, as the leading economy, draws particular criticism, as was evident at the third ministerial meeting of the WTO in Seattle, Washington, in November and December 1999. More than 30,000 protesters descended on the city to protest against the WTO and the subsequent media coverage ignited a debate over its role, and its relationship to large business interests in the United States. The American people, generally, became aware of the opposition to the WTO during the Seattle conference, as a variety of groups, including radical fringe groups, seized the national spotlight by demanding that the WTO become a more socially conscious institution, focused on improving the living and working conditions in developing nations.
Subsequent protests in Europe and Washington, D. C., in 2000 and the debate over the entry of China and Russia highlighted the problems faced by the WTO in defining its role and in its relationship to national governments.
See also ECONOMY; globalization.
—Stephen Hardman and John Korasick
Wright, James C., Jr. (1922- ) representative, Speaker of the House
James Wright (D-Tex.) served as a member of the U. S. Congress from 1954 to 1989, and he became Speaker of the House in 1987 until he resigned from office. James Claud Wright was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on December 22, 1922. After attending public schools in Dallas and Fort Worth, Wright went on to study at Weatherford College and the University of Texas. In December 1941 he enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps, was commissioned in 1942, and flew combat missions in the South Pacific. Following World War II, Wright was a Texas state representative (1947-49), mayor of Weatherford, Texas (1950-54), and served as president of the League of Texas Municipalities in 1953. He was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from Texas in 1954, served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions held in 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968, and convention chairman in 1988. A moderate Democrat, he became House majority leader in 1976 and was designated by his colleagues as the most respected member of the House in 1980.
World History
