Its main duties are to supply technical and legal support to the members, and to explain WTO affairs to the media and the public. The budget of the secretariat is over 117 million Swiss francs. The primary functions of the WTO are to administer trade agreements, act as a forum for trade negotiations, settle trade disputes, review national trade policies, assist developing countries in trade policy issues, and to cooperate with other international organizations (2.) The decisions on these items are made by consensus. Majority vote has never been used in the WTO, and rarely with its predecessor, GATT (2.) The decision making body is a hierarchical. The top level is Ministerial Conference, then General Council, then Goods, Services, and Intellectual Property Councils, and at the bottom are specialized committees and working groups. . The WTO has more than 130 members, accounting for over ninety percent of world trade. Over thirty others are negotiating membership (2.) Over three-quarters of WTO members are developing or least developed nations. Special provisions for these members are included in all agreements. The special provisions include: longer time periods for implementing agreements, measures to increase trading opportunities for these countries, requirement of all members to safeguard the trade interests of the less developed, and to support to help developing countries handle disputes and implement technical standards (2.) If China is accepted they will be considered for these provisions.
Recently, China has been making huge steps in nuclear advancement. Its nuclear technology is second only to the United States. This is a severe area of conflict for the two countries. Washington has made accusations of espionage towards China, saying that all of the information that the country has was stolen from Los Alamos Nuclear Base in Arizona (Perlez, 2.) Wen Ho Lee, Taiwanese native and former employee of Los Alamos, has been pinned as the "leak" for the Chinese government.
