Overview
World Trade Organization (WTO)
The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established on 1 January 1995, as a result of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations concluded in 1994. The predecessor of the WTO is the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
The WTO is the only international body dealing with the rules of trade among states and separate customs territories. The WTO agreements provide the legal ground-rules for international commerce, binding governments to conduct their trade and trade policies according to the principles and rules. Although negotiated and signed by governments, the goal is to help producers and providers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.
The WTO's main objective is to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably. To this end, the WTO:
- removes trade barriers and eliminates discriminatory treatment in international trade through successive multilateral trade negotiations
- provides a fair, predictable and open rules-based trading system through overseeing the implementation of multilateral trade rules and enforcing legally binding obligations
- provides a mechanism for settling trade disputes
- integrates developing and least developed economies into the world trading system
The WTO currently has 166 members, accounting for over 95% of world trade.
Doha Development Agenda (DDA)
At the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC4) held in Doha, Qatar in November 2001, ministers agreed to launch a new Round of multilateral trade negotiations on the basis of a broad and balanced work programme set out in the Doha Ministerial Declaration. It includes negotiations in the areas of agricultural products, services, market access for non-agricultural products, certain environment-related issues, and negotiations which aimed at clarifying and improving existing WTO rules. It also includes future work on e-commerce, trade facilitation, transparency in government procurement, trade and competition policy, trade and investment, as well as improvements and clarification of the Dispute Settlement Understanding. This new Round of negotiations is generally referred as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). WTO members concluded an agreement on trade facilitation in 2013 and an agreement on fisheries subsidies in 2022 but negotiations on many other agenda items remain open.