This monograph contributes key elements for understanding the functioning of the principal international organ that establishes the rules that govern international trade, through facts and data that contextualise its creation and structure. This information complements the analysis, assessment and discussion of the evolution of this organisation which has aroused disagreement and controversy within its very own structure and which analysts call on to be a space for coming together, engaging in dialogue and regulating international trade. The interventions of experts from different perspectives emphasise the interest kindled by the Millennium Round of the WTO, begun in Doha in 2001, which has fully entered the process of negotiations, also known as “the development Round”. The current process is complex and polemic, since added to the traditional mercantilist technique of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), there is a new component of solidarity that would allow for guaranteeing a more equitable distribution of the profits derived from the liberalisation of trade. The fact that great powers like the EU and the US are slowly assuming a part of their responsibility for finding the best possible solutions to the grave human and social problems that the poorest countries face and the fact that in these negotiations a more active role has been assumed by the less developed countries, which previously had been unable to impose their interests, create a new scenario.

Gonzalo Bernardos (Professor of Economics, University of Barcelona), Francina Esteve (Professor of International Public Law, University of Girona), Claudia Jiménez (Professor of International Public Law, Autonomous University of Barcelona), Monserrat Millet (Professor of International Economic Organisation and European Integration, University of Barcelona)

ISSN: 1132-6107

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