ملخص الجهاز:
Membership in the WTO potentially provides major benefits for Iran by improving its access to international markets and will encourage policy and law reforms to enhance the current situation in the country.
Facts of the 1996 Application of Iran Iran's application for membership was never formally brought on the agenda of the General Council(GC) of the WTO- an essential first step for the establishment of a working party on the accession request, and for the setting of the terms and conditions for such accession- until 2001.
By the WTO laws, as shall be seen, the Director General(DG) has to notify the Members and put the accession request on the draft agenda of the GC, where member or members might have objection to the draft agenda itself or withhold consensus on any further actions, including the normal one of establishing a working party to look into the application.
As to the philosophy of the establishment of the WTO, the Preamble of the Marakesh Agreement states that members should conduct their trade and economic relations 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 biosphere and to enhance the means for doing so in a manner consistent with their respective needs and concerns at different levels of development.