The World Trade Organization (WTO) and its relation with the rules of trade between nations at a global or near-global level

Abstract

The WTO is a place where member governments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. At its heart are WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations. But the WTO is not just about liberalizing trade, and in some circumstances its rules support maintaining trade barriers — for example to protect consumers or prevent the spread of disease.

The WTO was born out of negotiations; everything the WTO does is the result of negotiations, this article tries to answer the question what is the World Trade Organization? Simply put: the World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the rules of trade between nations at a global or near-global level. But there is more to it than that.

And tries to answer another question: Is it a bird, is it a plane? There are a number of ways of looking at the WTO. It’s an organization for liberalizing trade. It’s a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It’s a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. (But it’s not Superman, just in case anyone thought it could solve — or cause — all the world’s problems!).

Keywords’: WTO, negotiations, governments, liberalizing trade, Organization, settle disputes, GATT.