This book describes the historical background and current controversies surrounding the WTO in a way that's both concise and surprisingly interesting. The history is necessary for a couple of reasons. First, many of the procedures used in the WTO today, as well as some of its documentation, are holdovers from the WTO's predecessor treaty, the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). Second, many of the current controversies about the WTO have their roots in the North-South divide that became apparent during the GATT era, which lasted just short of 50 years (compared to WTO's life-span of a bit more than 10 so far).



The author goes out of her way to present the experiences and point of view of developing countries (DCs) on most issues. Since the vast majority of the WTO's signatories are DCs, and since most of the institutions of the WTO and GATT were under the control of the US and European nations, this is not so unreasonable or unbalanced. (Note that DC signatories aren't "opponents" of WTO or of globalization; they just want the organization to be fairer than it is currently.) Moreover, she makes it clear that the DCs aren't all angels, either. For example, WTO signatories are required to submit schedules of "bound" tariff rates -- i.e., they promise not to charge higher than the "bound" rate for the respective category of goods on the schedule. This goes to the heart of a main reason for creating WTO: DCs hadn't had to bind their tariffs under GATT. They were induced to do so under WTO by promises that WTO would address certain of their concerns on agriculture, textiles and other matters. However, the author points out even though some DCs were disgruntled that these promises were unkept, they were also gaming the system: most DCs "bound" their rates at much higher than what they were charging in practice. They thereby effectively assured themselves the right to charge significantly *higher* tariffs in the future -- which kinda wasn't what WTO was supposed to be about.



That the author can make such intricate details vivid and engaging is quite unusual for books about WTO (other than anti-globalization rants). And despite having less than 140 pages of text, the book will provide you with enough detail to allow you to penetrate some of the more scholarly tomes about WTO without falling asleep instantly, should you feel up to that challenge. Considering that the prices of such books are often $50-$100 or even much more, this book is a tremendous value.

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