World Trade Organization and its impact on Indian fisheries

The 1994 Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization was developed during the Uruguay Round, a series of trade negotiations among 125 countries spanning seven and a half years. The Agreement specifies the purpose of the WTO, its functions, structure, and legal status, and provides for a Secretariat. The preamble text states that parties to the Agreement recognize that, " their relations in the field of trade and economic endeavor should be conducted with a view to raiSing standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services, while allowing for the optimal use of the world's resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development, seeking both to protect and preserve the environment and to enhance the means for doing so in a manner consistent with their respective needs and concerns at different levels of economic development