international organizations

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1. What are some reasons businesspeople and business students should be aware of important international organizations?

Business people and business students should be aware of important international organizations such as United Nations, World Bank, IMF,etc. because they play an extremely important role in shaping the international trade policies and have a major impact in the development of international trade. These organizations work towards fostering international business relations, partnerships and development of backward regions and have been instrumental in promoting globalization. Thus, businesspeople and students should be aware of their respective areas of work, their possible impact on international business environment as well as impact of their policies on various countries and industries.

2. Even though the UN is best known for peacekeeping missions, it has many agencies involved in activities affecting businesses. Do these activities justify support for the UN? Would it be better if the activities of these agencies were done by private entities such as trade groups?

Yes, these activities justify support for the UN as these agencies have played an important role in the development of nations and international trade and have promoted increased cooperation among nations and assisted weaker nations. I do not think so that the activities of these agencies should be done by private entities because in that scenario, they would not been able to exert much influence with their activities and would not have been effective due to lack of resources.

3. How did the WTO come into existence? What purpose does it serve? Would bilateral trading agreements work better than the multilateral WTO approach?

The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 proposed the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO) to establish rules and regulations for trade between countries. Members of the UN Conference on Trade and Employment in Havana agreed to the ITO charter in March 1948, but ratification was blocked by the U.S. Senate (WTO, 2004b). Some historians have argued that the failure may have resulted from fears within the American business community that the International Trade Organization could be used to regulate (rather than liberate) big business (Lisa Wilkins, 1997; Helen Milner 1993).

Only one element of the ITO survived: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under the GATT before the eighth round - known as the Uruguay Round ? which began in 1984 and concluded in 1995 with the establishment of the WTO.

Mission of WTO:

The WTO aims to increase international trade by promoting lower trade barriers and providing a platform for the negotiation of trade and to their business.

The purpose of the WTO is to ensure that global trade commences smoothly, freely and predictably. The WTO creates and embodies the legal ground rules for global trade among member nations and thus offers a system for international commerce. The WTO aims to create economic peace and stability in the world through a multilateral system based on consenting member states (currently there are slightly more than 140 members) that have ratified the rules of the WTO in their individual countries as well.

sources:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/040203.asp
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization

The WTO's multilateral system ...