The World Trade Organization (WTO) founded on January 1, 1994, aims to encourage international trade to flow as freely as possible, making sure that trade agreements are respected and that any disputes (争端) can be settled.
In the five years since its founding, the WTO has become well-known as one of the world’s most powerful economic organizations, taking its place alongside the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The system of global rules for international trade, however, dates back half a century to 1948 when the General Agreement on Tariffs (关税) and Trade (GATT) was formed after World War II.
As time went by it became clear that the GATT had two major drawbacks—the limited areas of trade it covered, and the lack of an effective system to settle disputes.
After seven years of trade talks ending in 1994. the so-called Uruguay Round finally gave birth to the WTO, complete with an effective system to settle disputes and new rules covering trade in services and intellectual property (知识产权).
Even after seven years of talks and 22500 pages of agreements there were still problems, especially the difficult-to-deal-with areas of agriculture and services.
The WTO. with its head office in Geneva, has 135 members with 30 more waiting to join.
小题1:Compared with the GATT, the WTO _____.
A．can do better to settle disputes in more areas of international trade
B．got its members to sign the agreements more easily
C．has got too many areas of international trade to deal with to work effectively
D．didn’t pay enough attention to services and intellectual property小题2:In the new century the WTO will _____.
A．take the place of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund
B．have new rules covering trade in services and intellectual property
C．make complete new rules in every area of international trade
D．have more members and do much more to settle more problems小题3:The underlined word “drawbacks” probably means _____.
A．weak points
B．changes
C．strong points
D．improvements小题4:The best title for the passage is _____.
A．WTO—Another Name for GATT
B．WTO—an International Service Organization
C．WTO—One of the World’s Strongest Economic Organizations
D．WTO—the World’s Most Powerful Economic Organization
