Please draft answers to numbers 1 and 2 with all subparts. Answers should be prepared on a separate Word Document and uploaded in the assignment box where it says attach files.
1. Visit the Website of the World Trade Organization (www.wto.org). It is a practical, user-friendly guide that offers complete information on the WTO’s role and organizational structure as well as access to the GATT/ WTO legal texts and dispute settlement cases.
a. As a beginning point, from the home page click on Documents and Resources. From there you will have access to WTO Distance Learning, WTO Videos, audio podcasting, the WTO Library, and a helpful WTO Glossary. The Distance Learning page offers training modules and excellent multimedia presentations on the basics of world trade and on many of the more technical WTO issues. You can also link to the international trade statistics page. From the WTO Videos page, you can view programs or link to the WTO Channel on YouTube.
b. For links to all GATT/WTO agreements from 1947 to the present, navigate from the home page to Documents and Resources and choose Legal Texts of the WTO Agreements. Accessing WTO materials through the Legal Texts page is quick and easy. You can find Web documents either by browsing or searching.
c. For access to major WTO trade issues, from the home page click on Trade Topics and navigate to the Trade Topics Gateway and choose a subject, trade in goods, services, intellectual property, dispute settle- ment, or “Other topics,” including electronic commerce, investment, government procurement, or trade and the environment.
d. The highest decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which brings together all members of the WTO for meetings every two years. The Ministerial Conference can make decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. Ministerial Conferences have been held in Bali (2013), Geneva (2009, 2011), Hong Kong (2005), Cancún (2003), Doha (2001), Seattle (1999), Geneva (1998), and Singapore (1996). From the Trade Topics menu, navigate to Ministerial Conferences. What topics were on the most recent Ministerial agenda?
e. For access to the reports of WTO dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body, from the home page navigate to Trade Topics > Dispute Settlement, and look for The Disputes. From here you may search either chronologically, by country involved in the dispute, by the GATT/WTO agreement at issue, or by subject. Notice that disputes are cited as DS followed by a number. The numbers are sequential; for example, DS1 designates the first dispute filed in 1995, and so forth. Citations for panel reports will generally appear as WT/DS#/R, and reports of the Appellate Body will appear as WT/DS#/AB/R.
f. From the Dispute Settlement page, find The Disputes, and click on Disputes by Subject. Assume you are researching a Japanese restriction on the import of apples from the United States. Click on Apples. This is a search function, with results listed for you at the bottom of the page. Enter the case and find the link to the one page summary. What actions did Japan take against U.S. apples? Why? What was the result of the dispute resolution?
2. One of the most controversial areas for the WTO and its member governments has been the relationship between trade and the environment. What are the overlapping issues? What is the impact of trade or trade negotiations on environmental issues? How do these issues affect the devel- oping countries, and what position have various developing countries taken? Explain the relationship between protection of the environment and economic development.
a. Consider the following major trade-related envi- ronmental disputes at the WTO: U.S.—Standards for Reformulated and Conventional Gasoline (pro- visions of the U.S. Clean Air Act, DS52)
b. For alternative views on trade and the environment, see the Websites of Public Citizen and the Sierra Club and a highly educational site presented by the Levin Institute at the State University of New York, aptly called Globalization101.org. To learn more about the important Shrimp/Turtle case at the WTO, see the Website of the National Wildlife Federation.
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