KSLU Solved Question Papers
International Trade Economics
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10
2022 Oct Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 International Trade Economics 2022 Oct Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2022 Oct examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2022 Oct examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five Units. (2) One essay type Qn and one short note is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either in Kannada or English completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Discuss the role of GATT in establishing WTO and What are the functions of World Trade Organisation ?[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: Part 1, the role of GATT in establishing the WTO: GATT's birth and provisional status; its contribution as a rule book, a negotiating method, a working institution, a dispute practice and a membership base; the Uruguay Round as GATT's last act; continuity and change (GATT 1994, Article XVI:1); Part 2, the functions of the WTO under Article III of the Marrakesh Agreement (administration, negotiation, dispute settlement, trade policy review, coherence with the IMF and World Bank), with examples (United States: Shrimp); the further functions (technical assistance, accession, cooperation, transparency); a table; a conclusion.
Part 1: The role of GATT in establishing the WTO
GATT's birth. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed at Geneva on 30 October 1947 by 23 countries, India among them. It applied from 1 January 1948 under a Protocol of Provisional Application. It was meant to bridge the gap until the International Trade Organization began work. The ITO never came into being, so GATT, a temporary treaty, governed world trade for 47 years.
How GATT built the road to the WTO.
1. A tested rule book. GATT's core rules became the WTO's core rules. These are most favoured nation treatment, tariff bindings, national treatment, the ban on quotas and the exceptions. Members had lived with them for decades, so they could be carried forward with confidence.
2. A method of negotiation. GATT showed that trade barriers could be cut step by step in rounds of reciprocal bargaining. The Kennedy Round cut tariffs across the board. The Tokyo Round tackled non-tariff barriers through codes. These codes were the drafts of the later WTO agreements.
3. An institution in practice. GATT had no legal personality. Yet it grew a Council, committees, a Secretariat in Geneva and a Director-General. That working machinery passed directly to the WTO.
4. A dispute practice. GATT panels decided disputes under Articles XXII and XXIII. Their reasoning on national treatment and the exceptions formed a body of trade law. The WTO's Dispute Settlement Understanding built on it.
5. A membership base. The WTO's original members were the GATT contracting parties that accepted the new Agreement with their schedules (Marrakesh Agreement, Article XI).
6. The Uruguay Round itself. The WTO was negotiated in GATT's eighth round, launched at Punta del Este in September 1986. The Round ended with the signing of the Marrakesh Agreement on 15 April 1994. The WTO began on 1 January 1995.
7. Lessons from GATT's failures. GATT's gaps shaped the WTO's design. Its provisional status led to a permanent organisation. Its optional codes led to the single undertaking. Its blockable disputes led to automatic adoption of reports. Its narrow goods coverage led to rules on services and intellectual property.
Continuity and change. The WTO carries forward GATT's experience. Under Article XVI:1, it is guided by the decisions, procedures and customary practices of the GATT contracting parties. GATT itself lives on as GATT 1994, a part of the WTO's goods agreements.
Part 2: The functions of the WTO
Article III of the Marrakesh Agreement gives the WTO five functions.
1. Implementation and administration (Article III:1). The WTO facilitates the implementation, administration and operation of the trade agreements and furthers their objectives. It also provides the framework for the plurilateral agreements. In practice, councils and committees receive members' notifications, review their measures and settle questions before they become disputes. Examples are the committees on agriculture, subsidies and SPS measures.
2. A forum for negotiations (Article III:2). The WTO is the forum where members negotiate on matters in the agreements and on new subjects. The Doha Development Agenda began in 2001. The Bali Conference of 2013 produced the Trade Facilitation Agreement, in force since 22 February 2017. The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies of 2022 entered into force on 15 September 2025.
3. Dispute settlement (Article III:3). The WTO administers the Dispute Settlement Understanding in Annex 2. Panels and the Appellate Body decide disputes, and the Dispute Settlement Body adopts their reports.
United States: Shrimp (WT/DS58/AB/R, adopted 6 November 1998). India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand challenged a United States ban on shrimp caught without turtle-saving devices. The Appellate Body held that sea turtles were exhaustible natural resources under Article XX(g). But the United States had applied the ban in an arbitrary and unjustifiable way. The complainants won. The case shows the WTO resolving a clash between trade and environment through law, not retaliation.
4. Trade policy review (Article III:4). The WTO runs the Trade Policy Review Mechanism in Annex 3. Each member's trade policies are examined regularly on the basis of its own report and an independent Secretariat report. The largest traders are reviewed most often. The aim is transparency, not enforcement.
5. Coherence in global economic policy (Article III:5). The WTO cooperates with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Trade, monetary and development policies should then pull in the same direction.
Further functions.
- Technical assistance and training for developing and least developed members, so that they can implement the agreements and use the system.
- Accession of new members on agreed terms (Article XII). China joined in 2001.
- Cooperation with other international and non-governmental organisations (Article V).
- Transparency and information: notifications, trade statistics and monitoring reports, published by the Secretariat.
Summary table
| GATT's contribution | WTO function it supports |
|---|---|
| Core rules (MFN, bindings, national treatment) | Administration of the agreements |
| Rounds of negotiation | Forum for negotiations |
| Panel practice | Dispute settlement under the DSU |
| Working institution | Councils, committees, Secretariat |
| Lessons from its gaps | Single undertaking, wider scope |
Conclusion. GATT laid the foundations of the WTO. It supplied the rules, the method of negotiating in rounds, a working institution and a dispute practice, and its last round created the WTO. Its weaknesses also explain the WTO's design. The WTO now performs five functions under Article III. It administers the agreements, hosts negotiations and settles disputes. It also reviews trade policies and works with the IMF and World Bank. Its further roles in technical assistance and accession help it serve a membership far wider than GATT's.
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