The world trade organisation (WTO)
Learning Task 1
Task: To understand the notion of free trade and the criticisms for and against.
Task: To understand the notion of free trade and the criticisms for and against.
- Explain how the concept of free trade works
- Describe the pros and cons of free trade
- Read this article about the China-Australian Free Trade Deal, evaluate whether the free-trade deal is a good or a bad thing.
Learning Task 2
3. Read this factsheet
- Read Simpson's pp. 38-39 on the WTO, and this factsheet.
- Respond to the following questions
- Identify the aims of the WTO and explain how the functions of the WTO help it to achieve its aims
- Using an example, explain how the WTO affects state sovereignty (the Australian-NZ dispute over apple imports on Simpson p. 39 is a good start).
3. Read this factsheet
- Explain what the principles of 'most favoured nation', 'national treatment', 'freer trade' and 'predictability'.
Learning Task 3
Objective: To evaluate the influence of the WTO on contemporary global politics.
3. On a separate piece of paper: Respond to this prompt using the evaluate structure: Evaluate the influence of the World Trade Organisation on contemporary Global Politics. At the end of your summary put in your own opinion (one to two sentences).
Objective: To evaluate the influence of the WTO on contemporary global politics.
- Read through Simpson 40-41 and the following articles: WTO Settling Disputes, The Doha Round: An Explainer, WTO Fails Developing Nations.
- Respond to the following questions:
- Describe the WTO's dispute resolution process (what is it? how does it work? how many cases have been handled by the WTO since 1995? Provide a specific example of a time the process has been used).
- Explain whether the use of the dispute resolution process is a good or bad thing. Justify your answer.
- Explain what the Doha Round is (what is it trying to achieve? Who is involved in the negotiations? How long has it been going for? Why is called the Doha Round?)
- Explain the 10 ways that the WTO has 'failed' developing countries (you should summarize these)
- Explain whether the WTO is good or bad for developing countries. Justify your answer.
3. On a separate piece of paper: Respond to this prompt using the evaluate structure: Evaluate the influence of the World Trade Organisation on contemporary Global Politics. At the end of your summary put in your own opinion (one to two sentences).
- Remember: you can talk about how the WTO works for developing states, and the dispute resolution process.