Resolving Economic and Political Disputes in International Relations on the Example of World Trade Organisation Regulations – an Outline of the Issues

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (World Trade Organization, formerly General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade – GATT) is an international economic organization whose mission is to mitigate and eliminate obstacles to international trade. Implementing the principles established in its statute, signed by all 164 member states, the organization has a number of tools to influence international economic relations. Despite a number of perturbations in its activities in recent decades, as well as numerous failures and negative assessments by part of the international community, it remains the only global organization with well-established methods of resolving economic disputes. The purpose of this article is to attempt to analyze the role of the WTO in resolving disputes among its member states on economic grounds by examining selected tools, such as mediation. Selected examples of such activities are analyzed. It should be noted that mediation plays an important role in the palette of international dispute resolution tools and is used by the WTO for the integration of member states around the liberalization and ordering of international trade rules. The WTO, through its dispute mitigation activities, provides an important forum for building global relations.

Keywords: World Trade Organization; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; mediation; arbitration; dispute settlement