WTO
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a worldwide organisation that aims to reduce the use of
trade barriers in world trade. Central to the entire WTO system is the set of guidelines for world
trade that have been developed through the many rounds of meetings under the GATT system.
These are important rules of the game for global trade that the WTO member states must live up to.
These include not treating foreign goods unfairly, not targeting specific countries with tariffs, but
raising tariffs for everyone. There is also a great deal of reciprocity. There are certain exceptions
and situations where it is allowed to raise customs duties and distort the trade in some other way. If
you need to create the balance of payments, for example.
If any of these rules are broken, then the situation is assessed by the WTO court, which will come
up with an answer as to whether it was okay or not. However, the court has no real power, because
no fines or the like can be imposed. However, it is expected that countries will respect the decisions,
or other countries will see this and react accordingly, possibly by directing tariffs against the given
country.
It is not like the EU's trade element, which has direct power to judge such things. However, because
the WTO is a cooperation that ultimately looks after everyone's interests, its judgments are
generally respected.
Frihandelsområder
The advantages of being part of a free trade area are obviously that you achieve free trade, which
has many advantages in itself. It is typically said, based on the recognized trade theories, that you
can make better use of your advantages as a country. These can be absolute advantages and
comparative advantages, depending on the sector and, to a large extent, the type of countries with
which these FTA agreements are concluded. In addition, you experience increased economies of
scale. You have a larger market to sell to, it is easier to centralize because of financial freedom, etc.
You involve expertise from other countries that can create industrial blocks in the different
countries, this makes the whole process more efficient, so that everyone gets more out of their
money and gets better quality.
However, a problem with these free trade areas can be, as mentioned in the United States and
Mexico example, that there are certain industries and industries in the country that move out of the
country. This, of course, means that lots of people lose their jobs, the country loses money on that
front, and so on. At the same time, however, one should also get something back in the context that
offsets the negatives, but for the affected groups, it can simply be negative as a whole, if there is no
redistribution of profits from the winners to the losers, or that the losers are unable to adapt, either
in relation to further education or other forms of job change.
Imf og verdensbanken
The IMF aims to provide loans to countries facing acute balance of payments problems. The overall
task of the Fund is to ensure stable conditions on the international foreign exchange markets.
On the one hand, it must keep an eye on whether exchange rates are fairly stable. And on the other
hand, it must monitor that there are plenty of means of payment in the international payment
system. At the heart of these efforts is precisely to help countries that have large deficits in their
balance of payments.
In the IMF, however, power is distributed in such a way that countries have influence according to
the size of their deposits. The United States, which is by far the largest contributor, currently (2015)
has 17 percent of the voting rights. Countries such as the United Kingdom and France each have 5
percent of the votes.
The World Bank has a lot in common with the IMF. The organization was formed in 1944. The 188
member countries are the same as those that participate in the IMF. The World Bank also lends
money, but for other purposes. The purpose of the World Bank is to support the economic
development of individual countries through lending to development projects
After the war, the loans went primarily to bombed-out Europe. Since the 1960s, it is primarily
developing countries that have received loans from the bank. Now the Eastern European countries
are also among the borrowers. The World Bank is thus the largest aid organisation in the world.