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CLAT 2021 21 Year Experienced Team

Functions of WTO
1. Trade negotiations: The WTO agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell
out the principles of liberalization, and the permitted exceptions. They set procedures for settling
disputes.

2. Implementation and monitoring: WTO agreements require governments to make their trade policies
transparent by notifying the WTO about laws in force and measures adopted. Various WTO councils and
committees seek to ensure that these requirements are being followed and that WTO agreements are
being properly implemented.

3. Dispute settlement: The WTO's procedure for resolving trade quarrels under the Dispute Settlement
Understanding is vital for enforcing the rules and therefore for ensuring that trade flows smoothly.

4. Building trade capacity: WTO agreements contain special provision for developing countries, including
longer time periods to implement agreements and commitments, measures to increase their trading
opportunities, and support to help them build their trade capacity, to handle disputes and to implement
technical standards.

5. Outreach: The WTO maintains regular dialogue with non-governmental organizations,
parliamentarians, other international organizations, the media and the general public on various aspects
of the WTO and the ongoing Doha negotiations, with the aim of enhancing cooperation and increasing
awareness of WTO activities.

Dealing with the Bigger Neighbour China

Core of the border issues:
f Issue of Tibetan Sovereignty: The usual broadside about India “belittling” China's sovereignty in Tibet
followed. How could India support the McMahon Line when Tibet had “never possessed the right” to
conclude sovereign agreements with the outside world.
f Issue of McMahon Line: China had practiced “restraint” (hinting ominously that it could well do
otherwise) in the Eastern Sector (the sector covered by the McMahon Line) of the boundary with India.

f Eastern and Western Sector: the Western Sector of the boundary China was “practising a forward policy
because there are so many grey areas”. On the other hand, if India launched “a new edition of the forward
policy” in this sector,problems would “re-occur”.

An unravelling
f Border issues vs Other areas of cooperation: To the outside world, the two countries held up their
relations as an example of how despite an unresolved boundary question, they had not allowed these
differences to prevent the development of relations in other areas, including:
f trade and economic ties as well as people-to-people interaction in various spheres.
f Peace and tranquillity in the border areas had also been maintained for over four decades. But the
unravelling had begun.
f Unbalanced of power between two countries: Two nationalisms were contending and the untrammelled
rise of China was generating new global power equations and alignments. The gulf between India and
China was growing.

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