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World Trade Organization Toolkit

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The World Trade Organization (WTO)

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is an international organisation which deals with trade rules between countries. The WTO came into existence in 1995 and is intended to administer the WTO Agreements which have been negotiated and signed by the countries which are Members of the WTO, i.e. a large majority of the world’s trading nations.

Learn more about the WTO

The general objective of the WTO rules is to promote international free trade, i.e. to minimise the amount of state interference in trade flows that cross national borders.

The WTO System is based on three fundamental principles:

• trade rules should be applied by a country without discrimination between its trading partners or between domestic and imported products
• trade rules should be agreed with a view to lower trade barriers: tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade
• trade rules should not only ensure free trade, but also fair trade

The whole story of the existing WTO rules began in 1947 with the signing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Learn more about the history of the GATT/WTO

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