ABSTRACT
Despite its modest beginning in 1947-1948, the GATT-WTO has evolved into what is arguably the most effective and authoritative of all the global intergovernmental organizations.1 Even with its still modest staff and operating budget,2 the WTO and its associated global trade regime maintain unprecedented influence in comparison to other international regimes.3 Its members have gradually and incrementally built very substantial functions and authority into this relatively small organization. It facilitates the resolution of a wide range of trade disputes through either pre-judicial settlements or obligatory, enforceable rulings, guides ever more ambitious and encompassing rounds of global trade negotiations, offers training and special support for new and least developed states, binds a steady flow of new members to its procedures and specific policies, and reviews and shapes the trade policies of each of its 150 members. Its membership could well expand to as many as 170 or more states over the next decade. Despite its “weakness” in terms of the lack of an executive board and the relatively small staff and budget, the WTO serves as no less than the multilateral organizational mechanism underlying a truly global trade regime.4
