World Trade Organization
Chair: Patrick Larmon
PO/ Vice Chair: Will Moran
Table of Contents
3. Letter from Chair
4. Members of Committee
5. Committee Background
6. Topic A: Renegotiating NAFTA
9. Topic B: Least Developed Countries in the WTO
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Letter From the Chair
My name is Patrick Larmon and I’m going your chair for the World Trade
Organization this year at LYMUN. I am a Junior at LTHS and this will be my second
year in Model United Nations. MUN is a very social and cooperative activity, and I am
hoping to see a lot of that behavior in committee. The topics presented in committee
deal with not only including more nations into worldwide trade, but also countries trying
to renegotiate or even leave large parts of international trade. I expect that their will be a
lot of debate about those issues and I am very excited to see how it will play out in
committee. I hope that everyone will be researched and ready to debate when time
comes around. See you there!
If you have any questions , feel free to contact me at [email protected]
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Members in Committee:
1. UK
2. USA
3. Argentіna
4. Chіna
5. Djibouti
6. Japan
7. Indіa
8. Israel
9. Turkey
10. Qatar
11. Nіgerіa
12. Nіger
13. Malaysіa
14. Mexіco
15. Hong Kong
16. Germany
17. Cuba
18. U.A.E
19. New Zealand
20. Korea
21. France
22. Canada
23. Chіle
24. Brazіl
25. Vіet Nam
26. Ukraіne
27. Spaіn
28. Nepal
29. Italy
30. Iceland
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A Brief History of the WTO
The past 50 years have seen an exceptional growth in world trade due to the
creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the WTO.
Merchandise exports grew on average by 6% annually. Total trade in 2000 was 22tіmes the level it was in 1950. GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and
prosperous trading system contributing to unprecedented growth. From 1948 to 1994,
GATT provided the rules for much of world trade and presided over periods that saw
some of the highest growth rates in international commerce. It seemed well-established,
but throughout those 47 years, it was a provisional agreement and organization. The
original intention was to create a third institution to handle the trade side of international
economic cooperation by joining the two “Bretton Woods” institutions, the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund.
Over 50 countries participated in negotiations to create an international Trade
Organization (ITO) as a specialized agency of the United Nations. The draft ITO Charter
was ambitious. It extended beyond world trade disciplines, to include rules on
employment, commodity agreements, restrictive business practices, international
investment, and services. By the late 1980s, a growing number of nations decided that
GATT could better serve global trade expansion of it became a formal international
organization.
In 1988, the US Congress, in the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act,
explicitly called for more effective dispute settlement mechanisms. They pressed for
negotiations to formalize GATT and to make it a more powerful organization. The result
was the World Trade Organization, (WTO), which was established during the Uruguay
Round (1986-1993) of GATT negotiations and which subsumed GATT. The WTO
provides a permanent arena for member governments to address international trade
issues and it oversees the implementation of the trade agreements.
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Topic A: Renegotiating NAFTA
NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, it was signed by
President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney in 1992, but was finally put into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. It
worked to expand open trade between North American countries. NAFTA did away with
many of the regulations, like tariffs, blocking free trade between the three countries. The
ideas for NAFTA were first present in Ronald Reagan’s Canada-US free trade
agreement, which did essentially what NAFTA does now, but only for the US and
Canada. The hope was to use NAFTA to encourage trade between North American
nations as well as support North America in the international market. In a lot of ways
NAFTA succeeded in this goal. Trade between all member nations has since
quadrupled, prices for imported goods from the nations has lowered, and overall there
has been a noticeable economic growth.
From its creation however, NAFTA has stirred up a lot of controversy among
American politics in particular. Many Americans believe that due to NAFTA getting rid of
regulations on trade between the three countries, American manufacturing companies
have been outsourcing jobs from America down to Mexico. They claim that because of
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Mexico’s looser environmental and labor laws that companies favor towards that
because they don’t have to pay their workers as much, and don’t have to confine to
America’s environmental laws on manufacturing companies. Critics point to studies from
the EPI that say America has lost 700,000 jobs over the border, and other studies that
show the decreasing employment by manufacturing industries in the US since the
creation of NAFTA.
Not only that, but peoples lives, and the environment would be effected negatively due
to most of the labor and environmental laws in place in Mexico. These critics have been
around for years now, and just recently there has been some progress in their
movement against NAFTA.
Newly President elect Donald Trump has said that he thinks NAFTA has done
more bad than good, and that he would want to renegotiate or completely terminate the
US’s involvement in NAFTA. His position up to this point has been dead set on, at the
very least, renegotiating the agreements made in NAFTA. As stated in Article 2205 of
NAFTA, “A Party may withdraw from this Agreement six months after it provides written
notice of withdrawal to the other Parties.” and not only that, but theoretically Trump may
not need to go through Congress to pull out of NAFTA. The members of NAFTA, as well
as the international community may have to prepare for the trade ramifications that
would come out of the negotiations. The WTO has an interesting position in this matter
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however. While many participating nations in the WTO could not be directly involved in
the negotiations, as NAFTA only includes Mexico, Canada, and the United States, this
body does stand some ground to suggest what should be done to satisfy all members.
Whether or not Donald Trump goes through and starts negotiations with the member
nations in NAFTA, the WTO should attempt to give suggestions as to how to resolve
concerns brought up so that this problem doesn’t come up again in the future.
Questions to Consider:
-How does your country feel about the member nations of NAFTA?
-Will changes in NAFTA affect your nation’s trade?
Additional Resource:
https://www.thebalance.com/history-of-nafta-3306272
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Topic B: Least Developed Countries in the WTO
For many years, LDCs have come forward expressing the problems facing their
countries, and the community of developed nations has worked their best to respond
accordingly to those requests. This same kind of reaction applies to the UN as well. The
WTO has worked as much as possible with Least Developed Countries (LDC) to try and
include them in the worldwide trading market. Previous attempts at this include, quite
recently in 2015, the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights council
extended the transition period for LDCs to protect their Intellectual Properties (IPs) .
The WTO was able to create a strong base for these nations to grow based on their
Intellectual Properties. However, many believe that this extension was not enough.
Critics say that the extension was too broad and that it didn’t do enough to ensure the
growth in trade in these countries based on their Intellectual Properties. These people
believe that to properly help these countries grow into fully developed nations, the WTO
and the international community, in general, needs to be more specific when caring to
these countries. Some of the problems that are facing LDCs now are halting them from
any further progress as a nation. LDCs have been making progress increasing their
exports, however there are obvious problems that still need to be fixed.
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As of now, LDCs make up 1.12% of worldwide trade and the economic crash in
2008 did not help their progress to become a developed nation at all. After the crash,
many developed nations turned their focus to solely restoring their economy, and
weren’t to concerned with the issues of LDC. For LDCs the value of exported goods
were affected dramatically from the crash of 2008, so much so that in 2009 it surpassed
the pre-crisis level, and was increasing by 20% in 2011, and when oil is factored out of
the trade in these countries, it becomes even worse. While obviously oil isn't an export
in every single LDC, a majority of LDC's rely on that market so when dealing with LDCs
and trade, oil is a very important part.
Oil is a non-renewable resource and since many LDCs rely heavily it to support their
economy. With that recourse dwindling and the prices dropping heavily on it, this
threatens their livelihood. LDCs in general don’t have a very diversified economy, so in
the case of oil, that may be a countries only support to keep itself up. This body should
not only focus on bringing in more LDCs into the WTO, but also making it easier for
LDCs to trade amongst the international community.
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Questions to Consider:
-Can your country put a lot of resources into helping LDCs?
-What incentives can you provide for nations to trade with LDCs?
-Will being more specific with LDCs problems be an effective way in helping them
become a developed nation?
Additional Resource:
https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min01_e/brief_e/brief03_e.htm
Bibliography:
https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org7_e.htm
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/ldc_e.htm
http://www.intracen.org/itc/about/priority-countries/least-developed-countries/
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35245133
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2016/03/15/voter-anger-explained-in-one-chart/
https://www.millercanfield.com/resources-President-Trump-The-US-and-NAFTA.html
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