World Trade Organization (WTO)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization which deals with trade between nations. Its origins lie with the establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1948, which aimed to reduce tariff barriers to trade in goods. As a result of GATT, an informal international organization developed, but it wasn't until the final GATT round in 1994 (Uruguay Round) that a formal international organization (the WTO) was established to oversee the global trading system.

The WTO aims to lower trade barriers among member countries to ensure that trade is free and predictable. Its principles are based on the idea that reducing trade barriers promotes economic growth and prosperity and that trade between countries should be free from discrimination.

At the heart of the WTO are its trade agreements which have been negotiated and ratified by the majority of the world's trading nations (148 member countries as at February 2005). The three key agreements cover trade in goods (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT), trade in services (the General Agreement on Trade in Services, GATS) and trade in ideas (the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, TRIPS).

As a result of TRIPS, intellectual property has been linked inextricably with trade policy, making it a controversial and political agreement.

The WTO is overseen by a Ministerial Conference and a General Council. The Ministerial Conference meets at least once every two years and provides the mandate for negotiations on the international Agreements and other issues. The outcomes of the Conference are released as declarations, for example the Doha Declaration reporting on the meeting of the Ministerial Conference in 2001. The fifth WTO Ministerial Conference held in Cancun, Mexico in September 2003 broke down over basic disagreement on agriculture subsidies. The sixth WTO Ministerial Conference will be held in Hong Kong between the 13th and 18th of December 2005.

The information contained in this page was believed to be correct at the time it was collated. New patents and patent applications, altered status of patents, and case law may have resulted in changes in the landscape. CAMBIA makes no warranty that it is correct or up to date at this time and accepts no liability for any use that might be made of it. Corrections or updates to the information are welcome. Please send an email to info@bios.net.

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