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World Trade Organization Toolkit : The WTO

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) at a Glance

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 trading nations.

As of 4 April 2003, 146 countries were Members of the WTO. 27 countries are still in the process of becoming new Members of the WTO.

The WTO Agreements are structured as follows.

They start with the Agreement establishing the WTO, which is the umbrella that covers all parts of the detailed texts. Four important Annexes are attached to the WTO Agreement.

Annex I contains the "multilateral agreements" which are mandatory. Annex I is divided into three parts that correspond to the three major basic agreements, namely:

• goods (GATT 1994 and its related agreements and other texts);
• services (GATS and its annexes);
• trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs);

Annex II includes the Dispute Settlement Understanding which is mandatory for all Members.

Annex III covers the Trade Policy Review Mechanism by which the WTO will review the overall trade policies of each Member State on a periodic and regular basis and report on those policies.

Annex IV represents a small departure from the single-package idea. It contains the "plurilateral agreements" which are optional.

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