Does accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) boost trade?

\
Does accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) boost acceding members’ trade?
International Finance and Business Economics: Essay
Name
Instructor
Institution
Date
Part a
The WTO is the international entity that is responsible for creating and supervising the rules that govern trade between countries that are members of the organization. The WTO dispute settlement system provides security and predictability of the multilateral trading system and the members are expected to respect the rights and obligations under various provisions of the agreements (treaties) and to clarify the current provisions of those agreements. Since one of the aims of the WTO was to ensure there is freer trade where trade bailers are eliminated, there has been debate on where the organization has boosted trade among members. This is important to determine most the effective policies and provisions of the WTO treaties that promote mutually beneficial trade among the member states.
The WTO promotes trade and trade liberalization has opened up more economies, but growth is uneven with the developed countries benefitting the most from being WTO members. Cross- county evidence on trade patterns is one of the main focuses of research on WTO/ GATT participation (WTO, 2011, p. 10). When quantifying changes in trade flows, researchers also look into how different sectors have changed in countries that became WTO members. There is inconsistency on whether WTO promotes and increases world trade and some studies have shown that there is little evidence to make the conclusion that it has promoted global trade (Subramanian and Wei, 2007, p. 152) and (Ross, 2004, p102).
Maintaining a commercial system based on rules that guarantee to and promote fairness, inclusion and fair play at a global stage is one of the features that led to more countries joining the organization. Strengthening the system, consensus building is equally important aspects of the system during agreeing to negotiations and this has helped to grow the multilateral trade system (WTO, 2011, p. 44). Eliminating trade barriers has garnered more interest WTO promotes open trade, and countries joining the organization focus on growing competitiveness and opportunities as member states. Nonetheless, it is the countries that diversify their export base, which are most likely to benefit from being WTO members as is the case with China with a robust manufacturing sector.
Methodology
The gravity model has been to evaluate the effects factors influencing trade flows, and the basis of the model is that trade between any two countries is proportional to the gross domestic product of these countries and is inversely proportional to the distance between them. The bigger a country’s economy is the more likely it is participate in trade and trading is not equally beneficial to the trading partners. Determining the volume of trade between two countries is necessary when researching on the effect of WTO membership on trade flows. another implication of the model is that countries that countries that are close to each other tend to trade more and have trade agreements that eliminate barriers and facilitate commercial flows. However, distance also includes other factors...