The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). GATT was a multilateral treaty. It laid down rules and regulations for conducting international trade.

South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) is the regional inter governmental organization and geo-political union of nations in South Asia.

SPECIAL DRAWING RIGHT (SDR) was created by the IMF in the year 1969 as supplementary international reserve asset.

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is commonly known as World Bank. It has its offices all over the world.

WTO is World Trade Organisation.

The objectives of IBRD are:
(i) Providing long term capital to member countries to reconstruct and develop their war-affected economy.
(ii) Promoting capital investment in member countries.
(iii) Providing guarantees for loans granted to small and large units and other projects of member countries.
(iv) Ensuring implementation of development projects so as to transform the war-affected economy into peace economy.
(v) Providing long term capital for ensuring balance of payment equilibrium and balanced development of international trade.

1. From 1st October 2016 SDR basket consists of US dollar, Euro, the Chinese Renminbi, Japanese Yen and British Pound sterling.
2. The value of SDR is regularly posted daily in IMF website.
3. It is calculated as the sum of specific amount of each basket currency value in US dollar based on the spot exchange rates observed at noon London time.

1. Free trade benefits developed countries more than developing countries.
2. Most favoured Nation principles.
3. Failure to Reduce Tariffs on Agriculture.
4. Neglect of Farmers Interest in Developing countries

Affiliates of World bank group:
1. International Development Association (IDA)
2. International Financial corporation (IFC)
3. Multinational Investment Guarantee Agency(MIGA)
4. International Centre of Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID)

1. International business involved complex issues among various countries way back in 1950's.
2. A keen need then was felt to establish separate mechanism for regulating and controlling trade relation across the countries around the world.
3. As a result, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
4. GATT was signed at Geneva on 30^th October 1947 by 23 countries.
5. It came into effect on 1^st January, 1948.
6. GATT achieved many success but various countries felt the need to create a new international body to replace the GATT.
7. This led to the establishment of World Trade Organisation (WTO) on 1^st January, 1995.

The following are the criticisms on world Trade Organisation:
Free Trade Benefits Developed Countries more than Developing Countries :
Developing countries need some sort of trade protection to develop their new industries. Many developed countries had once used this protection to nature their infant industries in their development stage. In this context prevention of developing countries from defending their infant industries altogether through restriction is unfair. It is suspected to be a conspiracy to indirectly favour MNC's.
Most Favoured Nation Principles:
This is the core of WTO rules. Under this rule member countries are advised not to discriminate among the home enterprises multi-nationals and foreign enterprises. In other words WTO prevents developing countries from favouring their emerging companies. This move is supposed to give. unfair advantage to multinational companies.
Failure to Reduce Tariffs on Agriculture:
WTO failed to convince the USA and European Unions to eliminate high tariff on agriculture. In other words it defends high tariff on agriculture in USA and EU. This would undoubtedly hurt the farmers in developing countries.
Neglect of Farmers Interest in Developing Countries:
Developing Countries specialize in producing primary products. i.e. agricultural products. They need some sort of protection to diversify into other sectors of the economy at least in the short term. Many developed nations used this tariff protection in the process of their development. In this context WTO is criticised for being unfair and neglecting the interest of farmers in developing countries.
Neglect Environmental Considerations:
WTO encourages import from certain countries which produce the product on a larger scale at the cost of environment. WTO pushes for achieving increase in GDP without any regard for environment. In the current environment of global warming and ever increasing environmental. disaster, utmost priority given by WTO on maximizing GDP at the cost of environment is misplaced.

(i) Liberalised exchange Rate Management System (LERMS) was introduced in the 1992-93.
(ii) Under LERMS, Exporters of goods and services and those who are recipients of remittances from abroad could sell the bulk of their foreign exchange receipts at market determined rates.
(iii) Similarly, those who need to import goods and services or undertake travel abroad could buy foreign exchange to meet such needs, at market-determined rates from the authorised dealers, subject to their transactions being eligible under the liberalised exchange control system.
(iv) However, in respect of certain specified priority imports and transactions, provisions were made in the scheme for making available foreign exchange at the official rate by the Reserve Bank of India.

The major WTO agreements are follows:
(i) Agreement Forming Part of GATT:
GATT is an important part of WTO agreement. In addition to general principles of trade liberalisation, GATT also includes, certain special agreements evolved to deal with specific non-tariff barriers.
(ii) Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC):
This agreement was evolved to remove quota restrictions imposed by the developed countries on exports of textiles and clothing from the developing countries.
(iii) Agreement on Agriculture (AOA):
(1) This agreement was made to ensure free and fair trade in agriculture.
2) With this agreement, the developed countries have agreed to reduce customs duties on their imports and subsidies on export of agricultural products.
(iv) General Agreements on Trade in services (GATS):
Under this agreement, all member countries are required to remove restrictions on trade in service in a phased manner.
(v) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual property rights (TRIPS):
Intellectual property means information with commercial values such as ideas, inventions, creative expression and others.

Functions Of IBRD:
The main functions of World Bank are as follows:
(i) Assisting reconstruction of war-affected countries.
(ii) Promoting economic growth and balanced growth of international Business.
(iii) Promoting infrastructural facilities like energy and transportation, road development, etc. in member countries.
(iv) Encouraging agricultural and industrial development in developing countries by providing adequate resources.
(v) Providing resources for promoting sanitation, education, healthcare and small-scale enterprises in member countries.
(vi) Improving standard of living of people of member countries by providing assistance' by removing poverty, raising productivity, providing technical support and conducting research and development.