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World Trade Organization

"WTO" redirects here. For other uses, see WTO (disambiguation).

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland[1] that regulates and facilitates international trade.[2] Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade in cooperation with the United Nations System.[2][3] The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization, with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP.[4][5][6]

The WTO facilitates trade in goods, services and intellectual property among participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements, which usually aim to reduce or eliminate tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions; these agreements are signed by representatives of member governments[7]: fol.9–10  and ratified by their legislatures.[8] It also administers independent dispute resolution for enforcing participants' adherence to trade agreements and resolving trade-related disputes.[9] The organization prohibits discrimination between trading partners, but provides exceptions for environmental protection, national security, and other important goals.[9]

It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, thus replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had been established in 1948.

Its top decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference, which is composed of all member states and usually convenes biennially; consensus is emphasized in all decisions.[10] Day-to-day functions are handled by the General Council, made up of representatives from all members.[11] A Secretariat of over 600 personnel, led by the Director-General and four deputies, provides administrative, professional, and technical services.[12] The WTO's annual budget is roughly 220 million USD, which is contributed by members based on their proportion of international trade.[13]

Studies show the WTO has increased trade and reduced trade barriers.[14][15][16][17] It has also influenced trade agreement generally; the vast majority of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) explicitly reference the WTO, with substantial portions of text copied from WTO agreements.[18] Goal 10 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals also referenced WTO agreements as instruments of reducing inequality.[19] However, critics contend that the benefits of WTO-facilitated free trade are not shared equally.[20][21]

  1. ^ "Overview of the WTO Secretariat". WTO official website. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b Oatley, Thomas (2019). International Political Economy (6th ed.). Routledge. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-1-351-03464-7. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  3. ^ "WTO | the WTO and the United Nations". Archived from the original on 13 July 2007. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  4. ^ "The Reporter Archives". Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  5. ^ "WTO – Understanding the WTO – The GATT years: from Havana to Marrakesh". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Understanding the WTO Archived 6 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Handbook at WTO official website. (Note that the document's printed folio numbers do not match the pdf page numbers.)
  8. ^ Malanczuk, P. (1999). "International Organisations and Space Law: World Trade Organization". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 442. p. 305. Bibcode:1999ESASP.442..305M.
  9. ^ a b "U.S. Trade Policy: Going it Alone vs. Abiding by the WTO". Econofact. 15 June 2018. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  10. ^ "WTO | Ministerial conferences". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  11. ^ "WTO | Understanding the WTO – Whose WTO is it anyway?". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 4 July 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  12. ^ "WTO | Understanding the WTO – the Secretariat". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  13. ^ "WTO | Budget for the year". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  14. ^ Broda, C.; Limão, N.; Weinstein, D. E. (2008). "Optimal Tariffs and Market Power: The Evidence". American Economic Review. 98 (5): 2032–2065. doi:10.1257/aer.98.5.2032. S2CID 6116538. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ "Goal 10 targets". UNDP. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Wilkinson, Rorden (2014). What's wrong with the WTO and how to fix it. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ISBN 978-0-745-67245-8. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2020.

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