More beneficial for less developed countries
Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges; over three-quarters of WTO members are developing countries and countries in transition to market economies. The WTO agreements give them transition periods to adjust to the more unfamiliar and, perhaps, difficult WTO provisions.
Protect the environment
The WTO’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health. However, these measures must be applied in the same way to both national and foreign businesses. In other words, members must not use environmental protection measures as a means of disguising protectionist policies.
WORKING ON THE TEXT
Ex.1. SKIMMING:
a.Read the headline and the first sentence of each paragraph of the text. Pair up to discuss the topic of the article.
b. Read the first paragraph and the last paragraph of the text. Then work in pairs to discuss the contents of the piece.
c. Read the text. Get into pairs to discuss the contents of the piece.
Ex.2. SCANNING:
a. While scanning the text find the answers for content-specific questions given by the teacher.
b.While scanning the text pick out the sentences containing the key words given by the teacher.
Ex.3. READING:Read and translate the text “World Trade Organization”.
Ex.4. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the text and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
- Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
- Ask your partner / group your questions.
Ex.5. SPEAKING ON WTO:What was the main aim of the WTO creation? Talk about this with your partner(s). Rate each item from 10 (This is essential) to 1 (How ridiculous).
Change partners and share your ideas.
| _____ contractual obligations _____ collective debate _____ investment measures _____ trading system | _____ intellectual property _____ phytosanitary measures _____ regulations and practices _____ dumping and subsidies |
Ex.6. QUICK DEBATE:Students A: The WTO principles provide all necessary conditions for free trade: the Students B are strongly against this. Change partners again and talk about your roles and conversations.
Ex.7. WRITING ON NON-DISCRIMINATION PROVISIONS:Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word combination ‘Non-discrimination provisions’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.
Ex.8. TRUE / FALSE: Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F):
| a. | The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. | T / F |
| b. | The WTO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the ‘Doha Development Agenda’ launched in 1947. | T / F |
| c. | The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. | T / F |
| d. | Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be raised arbitrarily. | T / F |
| e. | Trade relations often never involve conflicting interests. | T / F |
| f. | The WTO agreements come into force immediately and do not give the countries transition periods to adjust to the more unfamiliar and, perhaps, difficult WTO provisions. | T / F |
| g. | The WTO’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health. | T / F |
| h. | Members must use environmental protection measures as a means of disguising protectionist policies. | T / F |
Ex.9. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
| 1. | Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments try to … | a. | because they are legal texts covering a wide range of activities. |
| Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges; … | b. | it should not discriminate between its own and foreign products, services or nationals. | |
| 3. | Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious ways of encouraging trade; … | c. | over three-quarters of WTO members are developing countries and countries in transition to market economies. |
| 4. | The WTO’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect … | d. | and giving them the confidence that there will be no sudden changes of policy. |
| 5. | The system’s overriding purpose is to help trade flow as freely as possible — so … | e. | and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations. |
| 6. | It also means ensuring that individuals, companies and governments know what the trade rules are around the world, … | f. | conflicting interests. |
| 7. | At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated … | g. | long as there are no undesirable side effects — because this is important for economic development and well-being. |
| 8. | Trade relations often involve … | h. | not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health. |
| 9. | A country should not discriminate between its trading partners and … | i. | these barriers include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such as import bans or quotas that restrict quantities selectively. |
| 10. | The WTO agreements are lengthy and complex … | j. | sort out the trade problems they face with each other. |
Ex. 10.WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocations, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘contractual obligations’and ‘dumping and subsidies ’.
| contractual obligations | dumping and subsidies |
- Share your findings with your partners.
- Make questions using the words you found.
- Ask your partner / group your questions.
Ex.11. CHAT: In pairs/groups, decide which of these phrases and words are most interesting and which are boring.
contractual obligations, implement, trade legislation, evolve, collective debate, adjudication, political backing, employment, income growth, embodiment, administering, multilateral and plurilateral trade, seeking to resolve, overseeing, portion of national sovereignty, cooperating, global economic policy-making, individual legal texts, agriculture, textiles, clothing, procurement, rules of origin, intellectual property, declarations, decisions, spell out, commitments, run throughout, trading system, non-discrimination provisions, preshipment inspection, investment measures, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, investors, employers, employees, consumers, investment and job creation, stable and predictable, secure and predictable, customs duties, quotas, transparency of domestic laws, regulations and practices, disclosure, publication, accurate to say, dedicated to open, fair and undistorted competition, fair conditions, dumping and subsidies, GATT rules, impose compensating duties.
Ex.12. VOCABULARY: Circle the words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.
Ex.13. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:
| contractual obligations, implement, trade legislation, evolve, collective debate, adjudication, political backing, employment, income growth, | regulations and practices, disclosure, publication, accurate to say, dedicated to open, fair and undistorted competition, fair conditions, dumping and subsidies, compensating duties. |
Ex.14. WRITING: Write about the World Trade Organizationfor 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.
Text 2