World Trade Organization

Examples of World Trade Organization in the following topics:

• Global Trade: Inequalities and Conflict

  • Global trade (exchange across international borders) has increased with better transportation and governments adopting free trade.
  • The United States is party to many trade agreements, but one of the best known is the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
  • But as trade has become more global and more complex, trade negotiations have expanded to include more countries.
  • In 1995, GATT was replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO), an international body that supervises global trade.
  • Most countries in the world are members of the WTO, which limits in certain ways but does not eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers.

• Colonialism, Decolonization, and Neo-Colonialism

  • Many accuse the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund of being agents of neocolonialism.
  • However, colonialism has been practiced throughout history and all over the world.
  • Colonized territories were forced to depend on colonizers for trade.
  • After World War II, colonial systems were dismantled in a process referred to as decolonization.
  • Some argue that the financial institutions of the post-World War II world are themselves instruments of neocolonialism.

• Trade Blocs and Common Markets

  • A trade bloc is an agreement where regional barriers to trade are reduced or eliminated among the participating states.
  • The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an example of a formal trade bloc.
  • Trade blocs can be stand-alone agreements between several states, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or part of a regional organization, such as the European Union.
  • For better or for worse, trade blocs are prevalent.
  • Since 1997, more than 50% of all world commerce was conducted under the auspices of regional trade blocs, such as NAFTA.

• Hunger, Malnutrition, and Family

  • While statistics vary based on measurements used, it is generally agreed that the number of malnourished or undernourished people in the world was around 1 billion people in 2010, about a sixth of the world's total population.
  • In fact, many believe that the earth is more than capable of sustaining the current world population.
  • The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations purports that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone–over 6 billion people–and could feed double that number of people.
  • These advocates argue that free trade policies transfer economic decision-making power into the hands of multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and transnational corporations, so that local people are unable to determine what is done with food that is locally produced.
  • Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause (at least partially) 60% of children's deaths in the developing world.

• Thinking Globally

  • Immanuel Wallerstein intended world systems theory to explain the entirety of world history, but it can also be applied to specific examples.
  • On the one hand, these investments could be considered free market trade: after all, China has paid for labor and mining rights.
  • Some scholars use world systems theory.
  • World systems theory stresses that the world system (not nation states) should be the basic unit of social analysis.
  • Sociologists who are interested in global social norms focus their attention on global institutions, such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, or various other international organizations, such as human rights groups.

• Labor Unions

  • The AFL-CIO is especially concerned with global trade issues.
  • Other forms of unionism include minority unionism, solidarity unionism, and the practices of organizations such as the Industrial Workers of the World, which do not always follow traditional organizational models.
  • Although much smaller compared to their peak membership in the 1950s, American unions remain an important political factor, both through mobilization of their own memberships and through coalitions with like-minded activist organizations around issues such as immigrant rights, trade policy, health care, and living wage campaigns.

• Gender

  • The World Health Organization defines gender as socially constructed ideas about behaviors, actions, and roles characteristic of each sex.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender as the result of socially constructed ideas about the behavior, actions, and roles characteristic of each sex.

• Preindustrial Cities

  • While ancient cities may have arisen organically as trading centers, preindustrial cities evolved to become well defined political units, like today's states.
  • Those that did often benefited from trade routes—in the early modern era, larger capital cities benefited from new trade routes and grew even larger.
  • By the early 19th century, London had become the largest city in the world with a population of over a million, while Paris rivaled the well-developed regional capital cities of Baghdad, Beijing, Istanbul, and Kyoto.
  • But most towns remained far smaller places—in 1500 only about two dozen places in the world contained more than 100,000 inhabitants.
  • Examine the growth of preindustrial cities as political units, as well as how trade routes allowed certain cities to expand and grow

• Bachelor's Degree Occupations

  • For those planning on getting jobs, all of the following are career paths sociology majors are well-suited for: organizational planning, development, and training; human resource management; industrial relations; marketing; public relations; organizational research; and international business.
  • Some sociologists find the adaptation of their sociological training and insights to the business world relatively easy.
  • This particular niche may be the single largest opportunity for sociologists in the corporate world.
  • Another key to succeeding in the corporate world with a degree in Sociology is to market your specific skill set.
  • Examples of NGOs include Oxfam, Catholic Relief Services, CARE International, and Lutheran World Relief.

• Industrial Conflict

  • An example of a labor union is the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO), whose constituent unions represent most American workers.
  • An example of a craft union was the American Federation of Labor before it merged with the Congress of Industrial Organization.
  • A labor or trade union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as higher pay, increasing the number employees an employer hires, and better working conditions.
  • Trade union organizations may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, students, apprentices and/or the unemployed .
  • Social unionism encompasses many unions that use their organizational strength to advocate for social policies and legislation favorable to their members or to workers in general.