World Trade Organization (WTO)

The world trade organization (wto) is an international body responsible for the negotiation, implementation, and enforcement of trade rules. Established in 1995, it presides over a multilateral trading system of which the core international treaty is the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), as legally consolidated in 1994. GATT obligations are informed by a political and ideological commitment to free trade: At the heart of the GATT treaty are the so-called nondiscrimination principles of most-favored-nation status (Article 1) and national treatment (Article 3). Their combined effect is legally to prescribe equality of treatment for imports and exports, such that WTO contracting states subscribe to open, predictable rules of trade.

There are 149 members in the WTO, accounting for over 97 percent of world trade. Meeting ...