Part I The Economic and Institutional Context of the World Trading System, Ch.4 The Place of the WTO in the International System
Donald McRae
From: The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law
Edited By: Daniel Bethlehem, Donald McRae, Rodney Neufeld, Isabelle Van Damme
- Subject(s):
- NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) — Responsibility of international organizations — Tariffs — Goods — Services — UN Charter — Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties — International peace and security
The WTO is a treaty, or a collection of treaties, and at the same time an international organization. As a treaty, the WTO consists of legally binding rights and obligations between the parties and mechanisms for clarifying those rights and determining compliance or non-compliance. As an international organization, the WTO operates through various organs and plays a role internationally, giving it an identity that goes beyond the regulation of reciprocal rights and obligations under the treaties. To some extent, this distinction between treaty and international...
