Settling disputes 4. Beyond the agreements 5. The WTO provides a rules-based multilateral trading system.
All members have both rights and obligations.
Differences in influence between individual countries remain, of course, but even the smallest WTO member has a wide range of rights which are enforceable under the WTO's impartial dispute settlement procedures. Most would rather introduce economic reforms on their own, without outside pressure. But the reforms can be delayed or blocked by domestic special interest groups which put their own economic welfare ahead of that of the country as a whole. In such cases, the need to fulfil multilateral obligations can assist a government to promote economic growth and development through economic reform. It is therefore in their interest to open wider their markets for goods and services that the lower-income countries export or could export in the future.