The World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed in 1995 to help ...

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed in 1995 to help alleviate some of the complexity of international trade. Textiles and garments are two of the product classifications covered by the WTO agreements. Visit the WTO web site to answer the following questions.
  According to the WTO site, what is the goal of the organization? (Hint: Click the What is the WTO? link on the home page.) Where is it headquartered?
  Textiles and clothing account for what percentage of the worlds manufactured goods exports? Merchandise exports? (Hint: Enter textiles into the sites search engine. Then select the article titled ''Textiles.'')
  Which department of the WTO is in charge of matters related to textiles? (Hint: Enter textiles into the sites search engine. Then select the article titled ''Textiles on the WTO website.'')

Question 2

Supply is the quantity of a product that the producer is willing and able to make available. Demand is the quantity of a product that customers are willing and able to buy. Fashion manufacturers must pay close attention to the balance of supply and demand to please their customers and to make a profit. If either part of the equation becomes out of balance, lost sales and unhappy customers could result. Recently, footwear manufacturer Nike and supply-chain-software supplier i2 Technologies became involved in a dispute regarding this very issue. Read about it to answer the following questions.
  For what did Nike blame i2 Technologies?
  According to Nike official Don Blair, what effect did the software problems have on Nikes profits?
  What did Nike do with the excess stock of footwear created by the software problems?

[Alyson.hiatt@yahoo.com]

Answer to Question 1

The goal of the WTO is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. The WTO headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.
Textiles and clothing account for about 9.1 percent of world manufactured goods exports and 6.5 percent of all merchandise exports.
Work in the WTO on textiles is handled by the Goods Council and the Textiles Monitoring Body.

Answer to Question 2

Nike officials claimed that a supply-and-demand-planning software application it purchased from i2 Technologies didn't perform properly, creating shortages of some footwear models and excess stock of others.
According to Blair, Nike ''experienced product shortages and delays that resulted in lost sales and additional air freight charges to bring products in.''
Nike disposed of the excess inventory through discount distribution channels.

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