Simple majority was required to make decisions. GATT Council (Council of representatives) was the next organ. It met once a month and evaluated current matters. Under the council, several committees were coming. The most important of these were, the Committee on Trade and Development (concerned with issues of special interest to developing country), the Textile Committee and a dispute settlement panel which functions to dissolve conflicts among its members. Finally there was a GATT Secretariat consisted of about 350 people, headed by the Director- General, found in Geneva, Switzerland. (lijx.com, "A History of-, p.2).
On the other hand, WTO consisted of 125 nations in 1994. The "Ministerial Conference" is the top level decision making body of the chain of command of WTO. It meets at least once in every two years. Its members are trade ministers from all the member nations. The second body is "General Council." This council meets several times a year. Its members are ambassadors and heads of national delegations in Geneva. They form the "Dispute Settlement Body" of WTO, which works to clarify trade conflicts. Under this council, there are other councils, like Goods Council, Services Council and Intellectual Property. They regularly report the upper bodies. WTO also has a Secretariat, headed by Director- General, found in Geneva. (Pitou, p.16).
GATT's general aims were to improve the members" life standards, and help the development of international trade. To achieve these general aims, GATT tried to abolish quotas, eliminate all NTB's and apply protection through tariffs for the members. Members were able to consult with one another on trade problems, collect data on world trade and study nations" characteristics and trends. (Lucy, 2) In the second half of the 20th century, GATT was effective at world trade liberalization; led to a massive expansion of world trade. It reduced average tariff on manufacture goods from 40% to 5% in industralized countries.
