For many years, GATT's policies held strong and offered many countries the international support they needed to remain prosperous in global trade. Though, as time went on, certain trade policies established by GATT were being undermined by countries in order for them to continue conducting business. GATT's rules and regulations were becoming obsolete in the rapid changing global economy. "By the early 1980s the General Agreement was clearly no longer relevant to the realities of world trade as it had been in the 1940s. For a start, world trade had become far more complex and important than 40 years before: the globalization of the world economy was underway, trade in services - not covered by GATT rules - was of major interest to more and more countries, and international investment had expanded" (World Wide Web. http://www.wto.org/wto /abo

ut/facts1.htm). The eighth round (Uruguay Round 1986-1994) was the most recent and thorough of them all. The Uruguay Round had 125 countries participating, it is the largest trade negotiation to ever take place. Though this round was expected to fail from the start, it actually started some of the largest trade reforms since GATT and WWII. This round, lasting some 7 1/2 years, established the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a new set of agreements.

Some of the current trade disputes discussed in the WTO are the disputes going on about the bananas between the United States and the European Communities. This dispute is actually being talked about this week in the Wall Street Journal. Both sides are frustrated. The U.S. is because they feel the EU has unfairly made loop holes in WTO guidelines, and the EU is upset because they say the U.S. is trying to control too much of their rights as global traders. The U.S. has stated that the EU has been purposly avoiding banana purchases in Latin America, and doing business in areas like Africa, where Europe has many ties. The WTO has the responsibility to work on a plan that will hopefully satisfy both parties to some degree, but the U.S. has strong opinions of implementing 520 million dollars worth of tariffs on EU imports into our country. Another dispute that is taking place is the Korean acoholic beverage tax. This is a matter the WTO is also trying to fix. The U.S. and EC don't agree with the tax that Korea is implementing on their imported alcoholic beverages.

Though, the creation of the WTO brought many great new ideas and helped closer unite the world into one huge market, there are still bugs that need to be worked out, and as time goes on, we will see need for more changes and adjustments. A few of the areas that the WTO needs to rectify and further develop now are areas such as worker's rights, environmentalism, and foreign dir

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1287
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)