ns with the purpose of liberalizing trade. The requirements of membership are the first step in enforcing government policies to speak in the interest of economics. All of the WTOs member states must abide by its rules, thus most of the nations of the world are being held accountable to rules in the interest of economics on a fair, global level.When states enact policies that disregard the rules of the WTO, the WTO has the ability to force states to comply with the rules by paying compensation, facing trade sanctions, or suspending membership status. Member governments, understanding that they will face economic tribulation if their policies are unfair or are not compliant with rules, are thus much more likely to keep their economic policies in the interests of their economies. Thus nations are less able to use economics as a political tool. This is administered through the dispute settling mechanism, which is often regarded as one of the best of the WTO improvements from the GATT, Dispute settlements is what WTO does best. Trade disputes are brought before the WTO at approximately three times the rate that had typically been handled by GATT. (Lash 373)The Dispute Settlement Body is the department of the WTO that arbitrates these disputes between members and its decisions are binding. Bilateral agreements have been known to be characterized by results that are heavily determined by the size and power of the trading partners, thus leading to larger countries taking advantage of smaller countries. Furthermore, bilateral agreements often risk leading to trade wars, which disrupt normal trading relations. Thus, through the dispute settlement mechanism, the WTO is the only organization that can prevent the consequences of bilateral resolutions. For example, the US with its sheer power and economic size would be able to have its way with almost any other nation in almost any situation, and thus the other country would be forced to com...
