Eric MulhECON 56504/21/2014Trade Disputes, Mediation and the World Trade OrganizationThe World Trade Organization is a very important organization in economics today. Member countries follow certain rules governing international trade, the WTO facilitates discussions between nations, mediates trade disputes and imposes sanctions on guilty countries. One of the most interesting aspects of the WTO is the complaints it receives and the decisions and sanctions that result from them. The WTO agreements are now signed by the majority of countries. These countries use the WTO to discuss with each other and try to resolve their disagreements on trade matters. The WTO also aims to liberalize trade. However, the WTO continues to support trade barriers because they are sometimes necessary to stop environmental destruction or protect citizens from disease. If the WTO could be described in two words, it would be “rules and negotiations”. The WTO facilitates discussions on trade between governments. These governments are negotiating new rules and applying old ones to new international trade situations. The WTO operates on a few fundamental trade principles. The principles are those that the WTO chose to create a more liberalized international trading system. The first is that nations cannot discriminate against each other. One nation is not allowed to get better trade deals with another. If a trade barrier is open, it must be open to all WTO countries. Furthermore, foreign and domestic products must be treated equally in the market. Fair competition is also important to eliminate trade discrimination. This is why there are rules against practices such as dumping. The next principle of the WTO is... middle of paper ... do not suffer any sanctions from the WTO. It's like the government found out a company was trading insider information repeatedly, then took a year to investigate that company while continuing to break the law, and finally just told them they had to stop . This hypothetical company still made a lot of money and had nothing to repay. The WTO may need to review how it punishes violators of its rules. The current system may still be the best. The role of the WTO is that of a facilitator. They do not want to impose retroactive sanctions. Instead, they want to have a dialogue where all parties involved can benefit and trade barriers can be reduced. References other than textbook or article summaries: World Trade Organization. “Understanding the WTO”. WTO, July 2011. Web. April 21. 2014. .